Time perception impairs sensory-motor integration in Parkinson’s disease

It is well known that perception and estimation of time are fundamental for the relationship between humans and their environment. However, this temporal information processing is inefficient in patients with Parkinson’ disease (PD), resulting in temporal judgment deficits. In general, the pathophysiology of PD has been described as a dysfunction in the basal ganglia, which is a multisensory integration station. Thus, a deficit in the sensorimotor integration process could explain many of the Parkinson symptoms, such as changes in time perception. This physiological distortion may be better understood if we analyze the neurobiological model of interval timing, expressed within the conceptual framework of a traditional information-processing model called “Scalar Expectancy Theory”. Therefore, in this review we discuss the pathophysiology and sensorimotor integration process in PD, the theories and neural basic mechanisms involved in temporal processing, and the main clinical findings about the impact of time perception in PD.