Abstract

Awareness of time is essential to our sense of self and fundamentally shapes our engagement with the world, encompassing scales ranging from a fraction of a second to a lifetime. Many patients with dementia have symptoms and disability linked to disordered time awareness, which is likely to reflect the distributed brain networks targeted by these diseases. However, the brain mechanisms responsible remain poorly understood. In my PhD I will address cognitive and neural mechanisms of temporal processing at three scales – intervals, rhythms and episodes – and the emotional, physiological and neuroanatomical correlates of this processing in patients with two major dementias – Alzheimer’s disease and frontotemporal dementia – versus healthy older individuals. I will design a neuropsychological battery to assess the accuracy of temporal processing of intervals and rhythms with simultaneous recording of autonomic (pupil) responses and a questionnaire to assess the daily-life behavioural and functional impacts of altered time awareness. I will use structural and functional neuroimaging techniques to determine the neural substrates of behavioural and associated physiological changes. I anticipate this work will identify pathophysiological signatures and novel biomarkers of Alzheimer’s disease and frontotemporal dementia, linked to disease-specific mechanisms of abnormal time awareness in these diseases.