The fundamental premise of this research is that human beings organize their internal and external experiences through temporal categorizations, which rely upon embodied images or schema. It is our opinion that there could be a linkage between human chronobiology, neurophysiologically based, and cognitive processes, since individuals would develop their own schema of time, or subjective time to be in tune and to interact with their physical, psychological, and social environment.
For purpose of this study the term used is subjective tempo, and it is described in terms of both internal processes and external behavior. Internally, subjective tempo is own personal timing or pacing with regard to psychomotor, cognitive, and emotional processes, or it is the speed at which a person can apprehend, register and understand incoming stimuli. Externally, subjective tempo is the speed at which a person can react, plan, and implement a behavioral response to stimuli.
The purpose of this study was to sistematically explore an hypothetical linkage between human chronobiology and cognitive processes, and to compare adults with and without psychiatric disorders on a variety of components and measures of subjective tempo, each with different psychological requirements. More specifically, the purpose was to determine if there were differences between the two groups on the following tasks and measures: (1) Spontaneous tempo (characteristics of free, undirected tapping using each hand), (2) Expressive tempo (characteristics of tapping when asked to describe sad, angry, and happy states); (3) Mobile tempo (ability to control accelerations and decelerations when tapping), (4) Rhythmic imitation (accuracy in reproducing the number and duration of taps and intervals between them, and reaction time), and (5) Synchrony (accuracy in synchronizing to events presented by the computer at four different tempi).
In this frame of reference the components of subjective tempo construct, including Spontaneous Tempo, Expressive Tempo, Mobile tempo, Rhythmic imitation, Synchrony and latency time, are considered dependent variables measured by rate of tapping (number of events, increment or decrement of tapping), duration, and amplitude.
The psychiatric and non-psychiatric group will perform differently to various tasks and components of subjective tempo according to their level of functioning and mental health state along the following measures:
1. Amplitude (higher in the psychiatric group)
2. Duration (longer in the psychiatric group)
3. Number of events (fewer in the psychiatric group)
Said hypothesis may allow to gather data useful to characterize differences in how psychiatric and non psychiatric subjects may organize their knowledge and awareness.
The psychiatric group consisted of 19 males, ranging in age from 20 to 55 years, with a mean age of 40.6 years. Of these, 13 were diagnosed according to DSMIIIR criteria as having schizophrenia, and the other 6 displayed symptoms of depression. All patients were taking medication, and at the time of testing, the psychiatrists considered them to be "balanced". The patients varied in level of education from sixth grade to one year of college. Most were unemployed; five were married and had children.
Subjects in the nonpsychiatric group were selected within students from a university in Rome, Italy, using the same criteria as above, except that none had been diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder. This group consisted of 50 students, 20 males and 30 females, ranging in age from 22 to 45, with a mean age of 27.2 years.
The tapping apparatus was originally designed for this research, and it was housed in an 8x8x1 inch box, hooked to a computer which had been programmed with a software package developed specifically for this experiment. Subjects rested with a hand on top of the box, placing the index finger within a small area marked off with a white outline. This area was the top of a very sensitive scale; thus, every time the subject's finger touched any place within the white area, the scale measured the amplitude and duration of the touch, which in turn were recorded and statistically analyzed by the computer.
Table 1 shows the comparison of mean scores in performing a spontaneous tempo using both the dominant and non-dominant hands.
When asked to tap freely, the psychiatric group tapped louder than the non-psychiatric group, regardless of which hand they used. No differences were found between the groups in the duration of taps using the dominant hand; however, when using the nondominant hand, the psychiatric group had longer mean duration than the nonpsychiatric group. No between-group differences were found in the rate of tapping. In short, when tapping spontaneously, the psychiatric group generally tapped louder, held each tap longer only when using the nondominant hand, but generally tapped at the same speed as the nonpsychiatric group.
Comparison of Mean Scores in Performing Spontaneous Tempo using Dominant and Non-Dominant Hand
__________________________________________________________
Non-psychiatric (a) Psychiatric (b)
Dominant Hand M SD M SD t-value
_______________________________________________________________________
Amplitude 30.71 44.65 118.82 84.14 - 5.43**
Duration 53.6 62.5 60.2 38.3 - 0.42
Event Number 29.4 16.4 26.8 11.6 0.63
_______________________________________________________________________
Non-Dominant Hand
_______________________________________________________________________
Amplitude 28.56 28.56 121.88 91.33 - 6.03**
Duration 43.85 25.58 55.84 26.07 1.69*
Event Number 30.85 15.12 27.11 13.51 0.93
_______________________________________________________________________
* p < .05 (a)n = 48
** p < .005 (b)n = 19
When asked to portray sad, angry, and happy emotions, the psychiatric group tapped louder than the nonpsychiatric group on all three emotions (see Table 2). No significant differences were found between the groups in the duration or number of taps for either sad or happy; altough, the nonpsychiatric group made somewhat shorter taps on anger than did the psychiatric group.
In comparing how each group distinguished the three emotions, there were no significant differences in amplitude, duration, or rate of tapping between sad, angry and happy, indicating very little difference between the two groups in their tapping. The nonpsychiatric group did show some distinctions between sad-angry and sad-happy on the duration and rate of taps, with sad taps being longer and with a fewer number of events.
Table 2.
Comparison of Mean Scores in Performing Expressive Tempo to Sad, Angry, and Happy
_________________________________________________________
Non-psychiatric Psychiatric
Sad N M SD N M SD t-value
_____________________________________________________________________
Amplitude 46 31.8 39.64 18 121.56 91.22 - 5.39**
Duration 46 86.59 103.85 18 159.67 315.46 - 1.37
Event Number 46 24.87 17.33 18 30.06 19.29 - 1.03
_______________________________________________________________________
Angry
Amplitude 50 41.44 59.51 19 119.00 95.9 - 4.01**
Duration 50 62.96 63.69 19 108.90 151.9 - 1.74*
Event Number 50 31.0 14.68 19 31.42 17.1 - 0.1
_______________________________________________________________________
Happy
_______________________________________________________________________
Amplitude 46 30.59 38.94 19 122.37 102.06 - 5.16**
Duration 46 47.98 28.59 19 65.42 71.50 - 1.38
Event Number 46 33.17 18.00 19 37.63 18.20 - 0.89
_______________________________________________________________________
* p < .05
** p < .005
A comparison of mean scores in performing mobile tempo under acceleration and deceleration conditions is illustrated in Table 3. When asked to tap acceleration and deceleration, the psychiatric group was significantly less gradual than the nonpsychiatric group on both tasks. The psychiatric group also played louder on both tasks.
Table 3.
Comparison of Mean Scores in Performing Mobile Tempo under Acceleration and Deceleration Condition
__________________________________________________________
Non-psychiatric Psychiatric
N M SD N M SD t-value
_______________________________________________________________________
Acceleration 46 61.0 49 18 17.0 37 3.41*
Amplitude 46 30.4 26.1 18 112.7 82.1 - 6.12**
Deceleration 47 57.0 49 19 11.01 31 3.79*
Amplitude 47 32.4 34.8 19 110.6 84.0 - 5.38**
_______________________________________________________________________
* p < .05
** p < .005
Table 4 shows the mean scores on rhythmic imitation for both reproduced events and reproduced duration. In comparing the two groups on the four items of rhythmic imitation, the psychiatric group played significantly louder on one item, underestimated the duration of taps on three items, and overestimated the number of taps on all four items.
Table 4.
Comparison of Mean Scores on Rhythmic Imitation for Reproduced Events and Reproduced Duration
__________________________________________________________
Non-psychiatric (a) Psychiatric (b)
M SD M SD t-value
_______________________________________________________________________
Reproduced Events
Item 1 (3 events) 3.08 0.43 5.57 3.81 - 7.65*
Item 2 (2 events) 2.05 0.27 4.67 4.32 - 9.31*
Item 3 (5 events) 4.91 0.46 7.53 4.62 - 6.67*
Item 4 (4 events 3.97 0.28 5.96 3.61 - 6.53*
with pause)
_______________________________________________________________________
Reproduced Duration
Item 1 (= 42.6) 32.11 11.13 22.59 15.12 4.73*
Item 2 (= 85.2) 62.0 20.53 31.33 29.43 10.44*
Item 3 (= 21.3) 15.90 5.26 15.14 12.37 0.60
Item 4 (= 21.3) 23.97 7.69 18.37 11.17 3.90*
(+ 21.3)
_______________________________________________________________________
* p < .005 (a)n = 48
(b)n = 17
With regard to the rate of tapping, the psychiatric group tapped significantly slower than the nonpsychiatric group on the fast items, and significantly faster on the very slow one (see Table 5).
Table 5.
Comparison of Mean Scores on Synchrony for reproduced events
Non-psychiatric (a) Psychiatric (b)
_______________________________________________________________________
Event Number M SD M SD t-value
Very slow (6 events) 6.4 0.7 9.3 6.4 - 3.45*
Acceleration 24.27 2.82 22.05 2.87 2.84*
(25 events)
Fast (45 events) 45.81 3.68 38.00 9.73 4.70*
Very fast (65 events) 65.02 11.95 52.26 17.97 3.33*
_______________________________________________________________________
* p < .005 (a) n = 48
(b) n = 19
On Table 6, the mean scores on rhythmic imitation and synchrony for amplitude are compared. The psychiatric group tapped significantly louder than the nonpsychiatric group only on one item of Rhythmic Imitation Task, and on all tempi of Synchrony task.
Table 6.
Comparison of Mean Scores on Rhythmic Imitation and Synchrony for Amplitude
Non-psychiatric (a) Psychiatric (b)
_______________________________________________________________________
Amplitude M SD M SD t-value
Item 1 171.2 11.0 187.0 94.1 - 0.98
Item 2 191.1 123.2 181.8 109.7 0.61
Item 3 139.9 94.8 163.3 94.1 - 1.51*
Item 4 161.9 108.7 167.6 94.9 - 0.33
Synchronizing 48.6 47.5 102.3 78.6 - 5.96**
_______________________________________________________________________
* p < .05 (a) n = 48
** p < .005 (b) n = 17
On Rhythmic Imitation task, the psychiatric group had a significantly longer reaction time than the nonpsychiatric group on all four items (see Table 7).
Table 7.
Comparison of Mean Scores on Reaction Time for Rhythmic Imitation Task
Non-psychiatric (a) Psychiatric (b)
_______________________________________________________________________
M SD M SD t-value
Item 1 55.9 26.3 79.8 42.0 - 4.5*
Item 2 76.8 33.8 111.1 66.2 - 6.0*
Item 3 43.8 16.1 61.5 36.6 - 4.51*
Item 4 60.7 15.6 77.8 48.5 - 3.6*
_______________________________________________________________________
* p < .05 (a) n = 48
(b) n = 17
Discussion
The purpose of this pilot study was to explore a possible linkage between human chronobiology and cognitive processes, and to compare psychiatric and nonpsychiatric groups in tasks, components, and measures regarding Subjective Tempo. Since subjective tempo is considered necessary to build schema to perceive internal and external reality, it was hypothesized that differences could be found between the two groups, in correlation with their mental state and level of functioning. The results of this study seem to indicate that the temporal schema of the nonpsychiatric group was more adaptive and articulated to differentiate situations and tasks, while the temporal schema showed by psychiatric group seemed more rigid and less adapted to different situations. The tasks required spontaneous motor behavior, emotional motor behavior, cognitive motor behavior, and neurophysiologic motor behavior. The different results scored in some tasks, both within each group or between the two groups, may support the point of view that each task provides specific information relative to personal subjective tempo construction, as well as that attributable to differentiate groups.
Amplitude seemed to be a particularly sensitive measure of differences in affect between adults with and without psychiatric disorders. The louder tapping of psychiatric patients and the absence of differences between sad, angry, and happy emotions seem to suggest a greater intensity of affect, and perhaps a greater difficulty in differentiating and controlling affective states. Previous research findings have linked amplitude to energy and affect control ( Nordorff & Robbins, 1977; Olivetti-Belardinelli, Rosetti, & Capirci, 1985) which in turn are associated with right-brain malfunction.
Duration of taps appeared to be a reliable measure of spontaneous, expressive, and mobile tempo in both psychiatric and nonpsychiatric adults. It distinguished the two groups when tapping with the nondominant hand (longer in the psychiatric group), when depicting anger (longer in the psychiatric group), when making accelerations and decelerations (longer in the psychiatric group), and when reproducing time duration (reaction time longer in the psychiatric group). Previous research findings suggest that the ability to reproduce duration does not relate to psychomotor competence but to affective state (Cohen, 1986), attention processes (Golden, Hammeke, Purish, Berg, Moses, Newlin, & Wilkening, 1982), perceptual trace memory (Golden et al, 1982), and development stages (Piaget, 1970; Fraisse, 1984; Rider & Eagle, 1986).
Rate of tapping also appeared to be a good measure of spontaneous and expressive tempo in both populations. Rate of tapping distinguished the groups in all tasks requiring imitation and synchronization, with the psychiatric group showing a distinct tendency to tap faster on the imitative tasks and slower on the synchronizing tasks (except on the very slow tempo). Previous research findings have linked fast tapping and the inability to control the rate of tapping to impulsivity (Barratt, 1983; Gow & Ward, 1982), to problems in perceiving acceleration and deceleration (Kuhn & Gates, 1975), and to mania (Cohen, 1986).
Reaction time also seemed to be a reliable indicator of differences between psychiatric and nonpsychiatric groups since the psychiatric group was consistently slower. Previous research findings have shown that reaction time is linked to central information processing functions, in this case cognitive processes related to the execution of a task (Biondi et al, 1991).
The present findings suggest that, when compared to individuals without psychiatric disorders on various measures of subjective tempo, adults with psychiatric disorders exhibit poor affect control and less differentiation and impulsivity. Moreover, the psychiatric group seems to present impoverished psychomotor functions, slow central information processing, short perceptual trace memory, and attention problems. It could be speculated that adults with psychiatric disorders may present impairment in integration between some right and left hemisphere functions concerning holistic, emotional processes together with analytic and sequential ones.
The implications of this study for music therapy clinicians are many. First, the temporal and rhythmic elements of music appears to have significant diagnostic implications. The present measures of subjective tempo can be particularly useful in identifying and understanding the kinds of problems that results from psychiatric disorders. Second, because musical experience involves both right and left brain activity, it may be of particular value in the treatment of psychiatric disorders, which result from hemispheric deficits or failure, to integrate right and left brain functions (for example, listening to music could improve attention, perception, and memory processes; composing music could help in developing cognitive strategy and problem-solving ability). Finally, because music, through its dynamic, rhythmic, and melodic components, allows people to experience feelings and emotions, it may be of particular value in helping psychiatric patients to differentiate, control and express affect, i.e. by re-production and improvisation tasks. By their involvement in musical embodied experiences, patients could re-structure their schema of subjective tempo to more successfully interact with their physical, psychological, and social environment.
In conclusion the present findings suggest that a linkage between human chronobiology and cognitive processes may exist. Specifically, the results further suggest that subjective tempo seems to (a) be a personal construction, built upon neurophysiological bases, used as a parameter to organize different internal cognitive and emotional processes, (b) vary in relation with normal and pathological state, and (c) be more or less adapated to perceive and to be in tune with the environment. Such variations in subjective tempo appear to be in connection with the fundamental components proposed in this study, and the measures taken in consideration both in previous research and in the present study, i.e. rate of tapping, duration, and amplitude.
Any generalization of these findings should be done with caution, not only because of the size of the psychiatric group and its diagnostic homogeneity, but also because it consisted entirely of males. Thus, the findings may not be applicable to females or to individuals with psychiatric disorders other than schizophrenia and depression.
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Prof. Gabriella Giordanella Perilli, P.hD, psychologist, psychotherapist, music therapist, GIM Primary Trainer, Dean of School of Psychotherapy and Integrated Music Therapy
e.mail: Francesco.perilli2@tin.it
www.gabriellagiordanellaperilli.it
www.musilva-spim.it
Address : Vicolo Casale Lumbroso, 82 00166 Rome, Italy
Phone +6-66180608
Fax +6-55285182
