Abstract
The current research was designed to establish whether individual differences in timing performance predict neural activation in the areas that subserve the perception of short durations ranging between 400 and 1600 milliseconds. Seventeen participants completed both a temporal bisection task and a control task, in a mixed fMRI design. In keeping with previous research, there was increased activation in a network of regions typically active during time perception including the right supplementary motor area (SMA) and right pre-SMA and basal ganglia (including the putamen and right pallidum). Furthermore, correlations between neural activity in the right inferior frontal gyrus and SMA and timing performance corroborate the results of a recent meta-analysis and are further evidence that the SMA forms part of a neural clock that is responsible for the accumulation of temporal information. Specifically, subjective lengthening of the perceived duration were associated with increased activation in both the right SMA (and right pre-SMA) and right inferior frontal gyrus.
Highlights
Individuals differ in the ability to estimate time intervals [1] and perceive beat information in music [2]
The results showed that linear increases in (S1) duration were associated with increased activation in anatomically defined regions of interest including the left inferior frontal gyrus, supplementary motor area (SMA) and superior temporal cortex
Written consent was obtained for all participants, and the study was approved by the York Neuroimaging Centre (YNiC) Ethics Committee
Summary
Individuals differ in the ability to estimate time intervals [1] and perceive beat information in music [2]. We present data that shows that individual differences in interval estimation predict neural activation in regions thought responsible for the accumulation of temporal information. Attempts to isolate the neural substrates for time perception are made difficult by the fact that time perception most likely engages numerous cognitive processes. Neural activation studies may either falsely attribute activation to timing when it reflects the operation of a different process or fail to record an effect of timing because activation is masked by a separate process (or processes). One solution is to isolate variability in neural activation through experimental control or manipulation for example, by testing for the effects of working memory demands [4,5,6] and motor processes [7]
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