Clinical, Cognitive, and Neurobiological Correlates of Impaired Timing Abilities Associate to Cannabis Use: a Systematic Review

Cannabis use alters time perception in a dose-dependent manner, leading to time overestimation in preclinical studies and impaired time estimation and reproduction abilities in humans, along with subjective temporal fragmentation and depersonalization. These effects may stem from indirect dopaminergic action and structural, functional, and metabolic changes in the cerebello-thalamo-cortical circuit. Despite growing interest in time perception's role in psychiatry, few studies have examined the link between cannabis-induced timing alterations and psychiatric symptoms such as those in psychotic and mood disorders.

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Abstract

Time perception received growing interest in psychiatry for its psychopathological implications. Cannabis use can cause a subjective experience of temporal perception alteration and increases the risk of emergence of mental illnesses such as psychotic and mood disorders. In this framework, we systematically reviewed the findings regarding the clinical, cognitive, and neurobiological correlates of time alterations due to cannabis consumption. According to preclinical results, cannabis exerts a dose-dependent time overestimation, associated with motor inhibition and circadian alterations. Clinical results reported that cannabis impair time estimation and time reproduction abilities, causing subjective temporal fragmentation and depersonalization symptoms. The alteration of timing mediated by cannabis use might depend on a dopaminergic indirect action and on structural, functional, and metabolic alterations of the cerebello-thalamo-cortical circuit. Despite the potential interest, however, only few studies explored the link between cannabis-induced alterations of time processing and psychiatric symptoms.