Perception of temporal order: Central and distributed timing

Abstract

Temporal order perception refers to the sense of synchrony, successiveness and order surrounding two events that occur concurrently or successively. This type of perception is essential for many fundamental activities, such as speech comprehension, music appreciation, and motor coordination. We reviewed studies published in the past 10 years that focused on behavior, brain damage, brain imaging and electroencephalography with respect to temporal order perception on the scale of several hundred milliseconds. Among the studies we reviewed, temporal order perception was influenced by the modality, attributes, and features of the stimuli, as well as the characteristics of the tasks used. The temporoparietal junction, intraparietal sulcus, premotor and supplementary motor areas, and prefrontal lobe were frequently reported to be activated during unimodal temporal order perception, while the inferior parietal lobe, intraparietal sulcus, insula, and superior colliculus were mostly reported to be activated during crossmodal temporal order perception. In summary, temporal order perception appears to be characterized by both central and distributed timing. The incongruence in terms of regions activated between unimodal and crossmodal temporal order perception may be related to the neural representation of temporal order. Future research could combine numerous techniques, explore the relationship between timing mechanisms and temporal order processes, and examine the specific function of each relevant brain area to clarify the mechanisms underlying temporal order perception.