“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.
