Production Of Temporal Intervals Research Articles

Reward positivity affects temporal interval production in a continuous timing task.

The neural circuits of reward processing and interval timing (including the perception and production of temporal intervals) are functionally intertwined, suggesting that it might be possible for momentary reward processing to influence subsequent timing behavior. Previous animal and human studies have mainly focused on the effect of reward on interval perception, whereas its impact on interval production is less clear. In this study, we examined whether feedback, as an example of performance-contingent reward, biases interval production. We recorded EEG from 20 participants while they engaged in a continuous drumming task with different realistic tempos (1728 trials per participant). Participants received color-coded feedback after each beat about whether they were correct (on time) or incorrect (early or late). Regression-based EEG analysis was used to unmix the rapid occurrence of a feedback response called the reward positivity (RewP), which is traditionally observed in more slow-paced tasks. Using linear mixed modeling, we found that RewP amplitude predicted timing behavior for the upcoming beat. This performance-biasing effect of the RewP was interpreted as reflecting the impact of fluctuations in reward-related anterior cingulate cortex activity on timing, and the necessity of continuous paradigms to make such observations was highlighted.

Young children's difficulties in switching from rhythm production to temporal interval production (>1 s).

This study examined the young children’s abilities to switch from rhythm production, with short inter-tap intervals (ITIs), to temporal interval production, with long ITI (>1 s), in a sensorimotor synchronization task. Children aged 3- and 5-year-olds were given six sessions of synchronization. In a control group, they had to synchronize their ITI to an inter-stimulus interval (ISI) of 4 s. In the experimental group, they must progressively increase their ITI for one session to the next (from 0.4 to 4.0-s ISI). Our results showed that the 5-year-olds produced longer ITI that the 3-year-olds in synchronization. However, the value of ITI in the 5-year-olds never exceeded 1.5 s, with more variable ITI in the control than in the experimental group. In addition, at 5 years, boys had more difficulties than girls in changing their tapping rhythm. These results suggest a temporal window in sensorimotor synchronization, beyond which the rhythm is lost and the synchronization becomes difficult.

One second interval production task during post-rotatory sensation

Temporal intervals production of one second was found to be more variable during self-motion compared to no motion situations. Moreover, the temporal intervals production rhythm during self-motion deceleration decreased whereas it increased during self-motion acceleration, whatever the direction of motion. As somatosensory cues were not excluded in this previous experiment, we now examined whether the same temporal perturbation would occur without variable somatosensory information. In order to isolate the contribution of the vestibular system from that of the somatosensory system, the participants were required to perform a one second temporal interval production task (pressing a button each second) during the post-rotatory illusion following self-rotation. The intervals produced during the vestibular illusion were compared to those produced before the imposed rotation and during self-motion. The production regularity was affected as the temporal intervals were more variable with vestibular stimulation (real and illusory self-motion) than without. Furthermore, during post-rotatory illusion, the production rhythm decreased along the trial, as it was observed during self-motion deceleration. These findings suggest that vestibular stimulation (even vestibular illusion) impaired time estimation.

Feature-based attention influences later temporal perception

We investigated the influence of feature-based visual attention on later temporal perception. Although there is ample evidence that space-based attention modulates temporal perception, it is not known whether feature-based attention also serves this function. The present study combined a visual selection task with a temporal interval production task to determine whether feature-based attention interacted with temporal perception. The results indicated that temporal perception of visual stimuli depended on whether the same stimulus had been attended to or ignored in a previous visual selection task. The temporal production of previously ignored stimuli was longer than the temporal production of either previously attended to or novel stimuli. This is the first demonstration of the effect of feature-based attention on later temporal perception. We concluded that temporal perception is affected by previously ignored stimuli.

Pharmacological manipulations of food protection behavior in rats: Evidence for dopaminergic contributions to time perception during a natural behavior

Operant procedures combined with pharmacological manipulations have implicated a role for the dopaminergic system in the perception and production of temporal intervals. Because studies have suggested that animals use temporal information to organize food protection behavior, the current study investigates whether dopaminergic systems are involved in timing during this natural behavior. The experiment examined the influence of a dopaminergic agonist (amphetamine) and an antagonist (haloperidol) on food protection behavior initiated to avoid theft by a conspecific. Amphetamine increased the time spent dodging and decreased the time spent bracing during the consumption of a hazelnut. On the other hand, haloperidol decreased the time spent dodging while showing no systematic changes in bracing. Topographic and kinematic analyses of rat movement conflicted with motivational, motoric, and social accounts of drug-induced changes in food protection behavior organization. These observations provide evidence that rats use temporal information to organize movements in the natural behavior of protecting food from theft by a conspecific, and this organization is influenced by both a dopaminergic agonist and an antagonist.

The effect of unconscious priming on temporal production

We examined the effects of unconscious priming on temporal-interval production. In Experiment 1, participants were instructed to keep visual displays on a screen for 2500 ms intervals. Half of the displays were repeated across blocks throughout the entire experiment, and the others were newly generated from trial to trial. The displays consisted of patterns so complex that the participants could not intentionally memorize them. The results showed that significantly more time elapsed for old displays than for new displays before participants indicated that a 2500 ms interval had elapsed. Experiment 2 replicated this effect and excluded an alternative account based on perceived pattern complexity. The effect of repetitive presentation was obtained despite the fact the participants did not recognize the repetition, suggesting that unconscious priming increased temporal production. These results suggest that time perception is affected by an unconscious process.

Temporal interval production and short-term memory

Interference with time estimation from concurrent nontemporal processing has been shown to depend on the short-term memory requirements of the concurrent task (Fortin & Breton, 1995; Fortin, Rousseau, Bourque, & Kirouac, 1993). In particular, it has been claimed that active processing of information in short-term memory produces interference, whereas simply maintaining information does not. Here, four experiments are reported in which subjects were trained to produce a 2,500-msec interval and then perform concurrent memory tasks. Interference with timing was demonstrated for concurrent memory tasks involving only maintenance. In one experiment, increasing set size in a pitch memory task systematically lengthened temporal production. Two further experiments suggested that this was due to a specific interaction between the short-term memory requirements of the pitch task and those of temporal production. In the final experiment, subjects performed temporal production while concurrently remembering the durations of a set of tones. Interference with interval production was comparable to that produced by the pitch memory task. Results are discussed in terms of a pacemaker-counter model of temporal processing, in which the counter component is supported by short-term memory.

Perception and production of temporal intervals across a range of durations: Evidence for a common timing mechanism.

Study participants performed time perception and production tasks over a set of 4 intervals ranging from 325 to 550 ms. In 3 experiments, variability on both the production and perception tasks was found to be linearly related to the square of the target intervals. If the perception and production of short temporal intervals use a common timing mechanism, the slopes of the functions for the 2 tasks should be identical. The results of Experiment 1 failed to support this prediction. However, when the 2 tasks were made more similar by providing a single (Experiment 2) or multiple (Experiment 3) presentations of the target interval per judgment or production, the perception and production functions were nearly identical. The results suggest that temporal judgments and productions are based on an integrated internal representation of the target interval rather than reference to an internal oscillatory process.

Perception and production of temporal intervals across a range of durations: evidence for a common timing mechanism.

Study participants performed time perception and production tasks over a set of 4 intervals ranging from 325 to 550 ms. In 3 experiments, variability on both the production and perception tasks was found to be linearly related to the square of the target intervals. If the perception and production of short temporal intervals use a common timing mechanism, the slopes of the functions for the 2 tasks should be identical. The results of Experiment 1 failed to support this prediction. However, when the 2 tasks were made more similar by providing a single (Experiment 2) or multiple (Experiment 3) presentations of the target interval per judgment or production, the perception and production functions were nearly identical. The results suggest that temporal judgments and productions are based on an integrated internal representation of the target interval rather than reference to an internal oscillatory process.

Temporal interval production and processing in working memory.

Short-term memory or working memory has been proposed as a cognitive structure contributing to time estimation. Thus, in a previous experiment, retrieving a stored item during a temporal-interval production lengthened the interval in proportion to the number of items in the memory set. In the present study, this issue was analyzed further by testing whether the proportional lengthening is induced by the load itself (i.e., the number of items) or by comparing the probe with memorized items. In a first experiment, a memory set was maintained during a temporal production, and the comparison of the probe with memorized items was postponed until the end of time production. Varying the number of items in the memory set had no effect on temporal intervals produced during its retention, suggesting that mental comparison was the source of the lengthening of time intervals. In succeeding experiments, tasks requiring processing in working memory but involving no memory load were combined with temporal production. In Experiment 2, increasing the number of syllables in a rhyme-judgment task proportionally lengthened temporal intervals that were produced simultaneously. In Experiment 3, increasing the amount of mental rotation in a task involving visuospatial processing also lengthened simultaneous temporal production. This interference between processing in working memory and time estimation suggests that working memory, defined as a work space for active processing of current information, contributes to time estimation.

Time estimation as an index of processing demand in memory search.

The influence of cognitive processing on time estimation was investigated. A temporal-interval production and memory-search dual task was devised so that some operations needed by the search took place during the time interval. Subjects were required to produce time intervals concurrently with a memory-search task similar to Sternberg's (1966). On the average, duration increased in proportion to the number of elements in the positive set. In general, temporal-production duration displayed the features previously observed, with speeded responses in memory-search tasks. The additive effect of memory scanning on time estimation made possible an interpretation involving inhibition of timing during concurrent processing in short-term memory. This concurrent processing situation appears to be a fruitful procedure for the study of the interaction between time estimation and cognitive processes. However, since a methodological feature of the search task could favor a successive processing strategy, the possibility that subjects performed the time production and the item-recognition tasks successively makes a conclusive interpretation difficult.

Drugs and the production of temporal intervals in the rat

1. 1. The widespread use and abuse of psychoactive compounds have increased the reports of drug-induced perceptual distortions and have generated an interest in the occurrence of such phenomena in non-human species. 2. 2. In a paradigm similar to human timing procedures, water-deprived rats were differentially reinforced for depressing a lever for 4.5 to 5.5 sec. 3. 3. Administration of amphetamine and tetrahydrocannabinol resulted in premature release of the lever (“short” errors); lysergic acid diethylamide and chlorpromazine prolonged depression of the lever beyond the required interval (“long” errors). 4. 4. The procedure employed appears sensitive to drug-induced shifts in timing behavior and permits direct comparison between the results of timing experiments with lower animals and the data obtained from the temporal production experiments commonly used with humans.