A Cross-sectional Study on Time Processing Defects in Dementia: A Paradoxical Illusion in Neurodegeneration

Background: Time creates, maintains, and destroys both in philosophical and real-life situations. We are unaware of time receptors, and it is perplexing how clear time events correlate is maintained in the brain, which is the foundation of memory. Patients in the face of disease move back in time and behave accordingly. This is commonly observed but not studied much. Aims: The present study aims to look at the phenomena of time-processing deficits commonly seen in dementias. Methods: Neurology department outpatients in two institutions over a 3-year period were screened for cognitive disorders. A time-processing questionnaire designed by us was applied. Those who had defects were evaluated, and the data were statistically analyzed. Results: Time processing defect is seen in many forms of major cognitive disorders and causes strange behaviors’. People move back in time, not ahead. It was less in Parkinson’s disease dementia and not seen in reversible dementias. Conclusion: People with various major cognitive disorders move back in time. There is also a loss of temporal correlates of events, resulting in chaos. Denying close family events increases caregiver burden, but patients appear more dynamic physically, based on the assumed age. Disease specificity is not identified. Time processing appears to be an independent cognitive domain and probably lies in networks.