Abstract
Previous research has shown that voluntary action can attract subsequent, delayed feedback events toward the action, and adaptation to the sensorimotor delay can even reverse motor-sensory temporal order judgments. However, whether and how sensorimotor delay affects duration reproduction is still unclear. To investigate this, we injected an onset- or offset-delay to the sensory feedback signal from a duration reproduction task. We compared duration reproductions within (visual, auditory) modality and across audiovisual modalities with feedback signal onset- and offset-delay manipulations. We found that the reproduced duration was lengthened in both visual and auditory feedback signal onset-delay conditions. The lengthening effect was evident immediately, on the first trial with the onset-delay. However, when the onset of the feedback signal was prior to the action, the lengthening effect was diminished. In contrast, a shortening effect was found with feedback signal offset-delay, though the effect was weaker and manifested only in the auditory offset-delay condition. These findings indicate that participants tend to mix the onset of action and the feedback signal more when the feedback is delayed, and they heavily rely on motor-stop signals for the duration reproduction. Furthermore, auditory duration was overestimated compared to visual duration in crossmodal feedback conditions, and the overestimation of auditory duration (or the underestimation of visual duration) was independent of the delay manipulation.
Highlights
Accurate timing is essential for our everyday activities, like dancing, playing music, or catching a moving object
These findings indicate that participants tend to mix the onset of action and the feedback signal more when the feedback is delayed, and they heavily rely on motor-stop signals for the duration reproduction
In the onset-delay conditions (Figure 3, up-panels), normalized reproduction errors were significantly influenced by the delay manipulation, [F(2, 26) = 246.78; p < 0.01], and [F(2, 26) = 43.30, p < 0.01] for the auditory and visual conditions respectively
Summary
Accurate timing is essential for our everyday activities, like dancing, playing music, or catching a moving object. In order to accomplish precise timing in a complex environment, our brain has to frequently update its internal representation of multiple sensory inputs. Inferring the timing and duration of events as well as correctly judging temporal order in the subsecond range can be challenging, since neural representations of time may be confounded by noise and delay perturbation in sensory pathways. The neural transmission time can vary across different sensory modalities (King and Palmer, 1985; Regan, 1989), and physical transmission distances (Campbell et al, 1981; Shadmehr et al, 2010), as well as stimulus intensities (Purpura et al, 1990). In daily life, accurate sensorimotor temporal coordination remains possible, indicating that our brain is able to calibrate and compensate for temporal inconsistencies among different sensory inputs as well as delays in the sensorimotor loop
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
