Temporal Impairment in Mapping Events: linguistic and non-linguistic time in aphasia

Project Information

T.I.M.E.

Grant agreement ID: 101028370

DOI

10.3030/101028370

Project closed

EC signature date 19 March 2021

Start date 18 March 2022

End date 17 March 2025

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Europe In A Changing World - Inclusive, Innovative And Reflective Societies

Total cost

€ 245 732,16

EU contribution

€ 245 732,16

Coordinated by

BCBL BASQUE CENTER ON COGNITION BRAIN AND LANGUAGE
Spain

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - T.I.M.E. (Temporal Impairment in Mapping Events: linguistic and non-linguistic time in aphasia)

Reporting period: 2024-03-18 to 2025-03-17

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

“Time has a new meaning. It’s all elongated and transient. […] I’ve got no sense of time.”
— My Beautiful Broken Brain (Robinson & Sodderland, 2014)
These are the words of Lotje, a young stroke survivor, describing how her perception of time changed after brain injury. Her experience reflects a broader, underrecognized challenge among stroke survivors, especially those who develop aphasia—a language disorder often resulting from damage to the brain’s language regions.
According to the 2025 World Stroke Organization Global Stroke Fact Sheet, stroke remains one of the most pressing global health challenges. Worldwide, nearly 94 million people are currently living with the effects of stroke, with over 11.9 million new strokes occurring annually. The American Speech-Language-Hearing association (ASHA) reports that roughly 25%–50% of all strokes result in aphasia. In Spain, and according to data from the Spanish Society of Neurology (SEN), more than 350.000 people suffer from aphasia, and around 25.000 new cases occur each year. Yet, based on the NAA 2022 survey on aphasia awareness in the USA, only 40% of people have heard of aphasia and can identify it as a language disorder, and 33.3% of the people who know what aphasia is either have aphasia or know someone who has it.
The overall aim of the T.I.M.E. project was to advance the understanding of language comprehension abilities in stroke survivors with aphasia—a disorder that impairs a person’s ability to communicate. With stroke as a leading cause of disability in Europe, impacting millions, enhancing our comprehension of aphasia deficits through this research is pivotal.
In particular, the T.I.M.E. project addressed a critical gap in our understanding of how stroke survivors process time—a fundamental cognitive function. This research is vital to society, as time perception is deeply intertwined with our ability to communicate, plan, and function in daily life.
The project aimed to:
1. Investigate how individuals with aphasia understand time in language (Objective 1).
2. Explore whether time processing difficulties are specific to language or reflect broader cognitive impairments (Objective 2).
3. Identify the neural correlates of time comprehension through structural MRI analyses (Objective 3).
An interdisciplinary approach was adopted, integrating neuro-linguistic theory, cognitive science, and neuroimaging techniques to provide a comprehensive understanding of time processing in aphasia.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

2.1 Development and piloting of experimental tasks:

• Designed and successfully piloted innovative experimental tasks aimed at assessing temporal processing abilities in stroke survivors. These tasks were crafted to differentiate between past, present, and future event localization, providing a robust framework for measuring nuanced aspects of time comprehension.

• Adjustments were made based on pilot feedback to optimize task clarity, including modifying stimuli presentation formats to better suit the cognitive capabilities of the participants.

2.2 Findings highlighting time deficits:

• Compared to healthy controls, stroke survivors showed pronounced difficulties in tasks requiring temporal event location—especially for past events. The findings suggest that time impairment is selective and does not affect all the mechanisms involved in time comprehension
• Comparisons between linguistic and non-linguistic tasks suggest that locating events without explicit linguistic information is also challenging for stroke survivors. These findings suggest that aphasia can impact other aspects of cognition.

2.3 Lesion-symptom mapping to correlate brain lesions with language deficits:

• Collaboration with renowned experts in the field enhanced the project's scope and depth, utilizing cutting-edge methodologies to analyze the complex relationship between brain structure and cognitive function in stroke survivors.
• Large-scale lesion-symptom mapping (LSM) studies were performed to correlate specific brain lesions with linguistic deficits, providing a deeper understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying comprehension and temporal impairments.
• Findings suggest that regions in the posterior part of the temporal lobe and underlying white matter tracts are important for successful comprehension and time processing.

2.4 Interdisciplinary approach to research:
The project adopts an interdisciplinary approach, integrating linguistics with cognitive science and neuroimaging. This comprehensive strategy not only enriches research but also fosters a holistic understanding of how temporal processing is affected by neurological damage.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

3.1. Innovative experimental tasks:
The T.I.M.E. project has developed pioneering experimental tasks specifically designed to dissect the intricate facets of time processing in stroke survivors. These tasks are the first of their kind to measure different mechanisms involved during time comprehension, both in the language and in the non-linguistic domain. This breakthrough in experimental design fills a significant gap in neurolinguistic research of time processing.

3.2. Cross-linguistic investigation:
By designing parallel tests in English and Spanish, the project opens the door to comparative linguistic studies. This approach increases the global applicability of the findings and will support future work on language diversity in brain injury.

3.3. Socio-Economic Impacts and Clinical Applications:
The research lays the foundation for developing diagnostic tools that assess time-related deficits in aphasia. Such tools could improve clinical evaluation and intervention strategies for stroke survivors, ultimately contributing to better rehabilitation outcomes and enhanced quality of life.

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