Autochronometric abnormalities in patients with cerebral pathology in various locations.

Dysfunction of the limbic structures of the temporal lobe of the brain (predominantly the hippocampus), chiasma, hypothalamus, and epiphysis is accompanied by impairment of internal estimation of time periods. In patients with lesions of the temporal lobes and base of the skull, changes in measures of autochronometry were uniform, were the most marked, and were not directly associated with locomotor parameters or with changes in the general functional state of the CNS. In patients with spinal cord or vertebral lesions, including tumors, and in those with extensive lesions of the frontoparietal areas of the neocortex, there were no profound defects in endogenous time estimation, regardless of impairments of the functional state of the synaptic and motor system. These data identify the cerebral oscillatory formations--the hippocampus, the hypothalamic area, and the epiphysis--as structures directly involved in the physiological mechanisms controlling autochronometry.