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Journal ArticleDOI

Distinct systems for automatic and cognitively controlled time measurement: evidence from neuroimaging.

01 Apr 2003-Current Opinion in Neurobiology (Elsevier)-Vol. 13, Iss: 2, pp 250-255
TL;DR: It is argued that careful analysis of this literature provides evidence for separate neural timing systems associated with opposing task characteristics, the 'automatic' system draws mainly upon motor circuits and the 'cognitively controlled' system depends upon prefrontal and parietal regions.
About: This article is published in Current Opinion in Neurobiology.The article was published on 2003-04-01. It has received 779 citations till now.
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This target article critically examines this "hierarchical prediction machine" approach, concluding that it offers the best clue yet to the shape of a unified science of mind and action.
Abstract: Brains, it has recently been argued, are essentially prediction machines. They are bundles of cells that support perception and action by constantly attempting to match incoming sensory inputs with top-down expectations or predictions. This is achieved using a hierarchical generative model that aims to minimize prediction error within a bidirectional cascade of cortical processing. Such accounts offer a unifying model of perception and action, illuminate the functional role of attention, and may neatly capture the special contribution of cortical processing to adaptive success. This target article critically examines this "hierarchical prediction machine" approach, concluding that it offers the best clue yet to the shape of a unified science of mind and action. Sections 1 and 2 lay out the key elements and implications of the approach. Section 3 explores a variety of pitfalls and challenges, spanning the evidential, the methodological, and the more properly conceptual. The paper ends (sections 4 and 5) by asking how such approaches might impact our more general vision of mind, experience, and agency.

3,640 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is proposed that the brain represents time in a distributed manner and tells the time by detecting the coincidental activation of different neural populations.
Abstract: Time is a fundamental dimension of life. It is crucial for decisions about quantity, speed of movement and rate of return, as well as for motor control in walking, speech, playing or appreciating music, and participating in sports. Traditionally, the way in which time is perceived, represented and estimated has been explained using a pacemaker-accumulator model that is not only straightforward, but also surprisingly powerful in explaining behavioural and biological data. However, recent advances have challenged this traditional view. It is now proposed that the brain represents time in a distributed manner and tells the time by detecting the coincidental activation of different neural populations.

1,814 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This work reviews the cognitive neuroscience literature of both motor and auditory domains, highlighting the value of studying interactions between these systems in a musical context, and proposes some ideas concerning the role of the premotor cortex in integration of higher order features of music with appropriately timed and organized actions.
Abstract: Music performance is both a natural human activity, present in all societies, and one of the most complex and demanding cognitive challenges that the human mind can undertake. Unlike most other sensory-motor activities, music performance requires precise timing of several hierarchically organized actions, as well as precise control over pitch interval production, implemented through diverse effectors according to the instrument involved. We review the cognitive neuroscience literature of both motor and auditory domains, highlighting the value of studying interactions between these systems in a musical context, and propose some ideas concerning the role of the premotor cortex in integration of higher order features of music with appropriately timed and organized actions.

1,295 citations


Cites background from "Distinct systems for automatic and ..."

  • ...It has been proposed that the basal ganglia and possibly the SMA may be more important for interval timing at longer timescales (1 second and above), whereas the cerebellum may be more important for controlling motor timing at shorter timescales (millisecond...

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This review summarizes theories and empirical findings obtained with the tapping task on the role of intention, rate limits, the negative mean asynchrony, variability, models of error correction, perturbation studies, neural correlates of SMS, and SMS in musical contexts.
Abstract: Sensorimotor synchronization (SMS), the rhythmic coordination of perception and action, occurs in many contexts, but most conspicuously in music performance and dance. In the laboratory, it is most often studied in the form of finger tapping to a sequence of auditory stimuli. This review summarizes theories and empirical findings obtained with the tapping task. Its eight sections deal with the role of intention, rate limits, the negative mean asynchrony, variability, models of error correction, perturbation studies, neural correlates of SMS, and SMS in musical contexts. The central theoretical issue is considered to be how best to characterize the perceptual information and the internal processes that enable people to achieve and maintain SMS. Recent research suggests that SMS is controlled jointly by two error correction processes (phase correction and period correction) that differ in their degrees of cognitive control and may be associated with different brain circuits. They exemplify the general distinction between subconscious mechanisms of action regulation and conscious processes involved in perceptual judgment and action planning.

1,204 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is evident that much new knowledge about SMS has been acquired in the last 7 years, and more recent research in what appears to be a burgeoning field is surveyed.
Abstract: Sensorimotor synchronization (SMS) is the coordination of rhythmic movement with an external rhythm, ranging from finger tapping in time with a metronome to musical ensemble performance. An earlier review (Repp, 2005) covered tapping studies; two additional reviews (Repp, 2006a, b) focused on music performance and on rate limits of SMS, respectively. The present article supplements and extends these earlier reviews by surveying more recent research in what appears to be a burgeoning field. The article comprises four parts, dealing with (1) conventional tapping studies, (2) other forms of moving in synchrony with external rhythms (including dance and nonhuman animals’ synchronization abilities), (3) interpersonal synchronization (including musical ensemble performance), and (4) the neuroscience of SMS. It is evident that much new knowledge about SMS has been acquired in the last 7 years.

861 citations

References
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is proposed here that an observation/execution matching system provides a necessary bridge from'doing' to'communicating', as the link between actor and observer becomes a link between the sender and the receiver of each message.

2,675 citations


"Distinct systems for automatic and ..." refers background in this paper

  • ...The SMA and the pre-SMA are combined as SMA; the frontal operculum is included in PMC [58], as are the frontal eye fields....

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  • ...If localisations specified by authors are ambiguous (i.e. insula/operculum), they are indicated in both areas. www.current-opinion.com Current Opinion in Neurobiology 2003, 13:1–6 although some regions frequently observed in association with automatic timing (right PMC and bilateral SMA) also activate in these conditions, considerable activity occurs in the left cerebellum and in the prefrontal and parietal cortices, with a bias to the right cortical hemisphere....

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  • ...Looking specifically at the categories emphasising automatic-related task characteristics (Rows [f] [g]) we see very frequent activity in the motor system — the bilateral supplementary motor area (SMA) and the left sensorimotor cortex are most commonly activated; the right cerebellum and lateral premotor area (PMC) are only slightly less frequently activated; the left thalamus and the basal ganglia are also activated....

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  • ...fMRI functional magnetic resonance imaging PMC lateral premotor area SMA supplementary motor area...

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Journal ArticleDOI
John Gibbon1

2,072 citations


"Distinct systems for automatic and ..." refers background in this paper

  • ...Cognitively controlled timing is likely to draw upon multi-purpose cognitive circuits within the prefrontal and parietal cortices [24]; in particular, activity is expected in areas associated with attention and working memory [3,6,25,26]....

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  • ...the intraparietal sulcus and inferior parietal lobe), all of which processes are believed necessary for cognitively controlled time measurement [3,6,25,26]....

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The results suggest that the domain of the cerebellar timing process is not limited to the motor system, but is employed by other perceptual and cognitive systems when temporally predictive computations are needed.
Abstract: This study investigated the effects of different types of neurological deficits on timing functions. The performance of Parkinson, cerebellar, cortical, and peripheral neuropathy patients was compared to age-matched control subjects on two separate measures of timing functions. The first task involved the production of timed intervals in which the subjects attempted to maintain a simple rhythm. The second task measured the subjects' perceptual ability to discriminate between small differences in the duration of two intervals. The primacy of the cerebellum in timing functions was demonstrated by the finding that these were the only patients who showed a deficit in both the production and perception of timing tasks. The cerebellar group was found to have increased variability in performing rhythmic tapping and they were less accurate than the other groups in making perceptual discriminations regarding small differences in duration. Critically, this perceptual deficit appears to be specific to the perception of time since the cerebellar patients were unaffected in a control task measuring the perception of loudness. It is argued that the operation of a timing mechanism can be conceptualized as an isolable component of the motor control system. Furthermore, the results suggest that the domain of the cerebellar timing process is not limited to the motor system, but is employed by other perceptual and cognitive systems when temporally predictive computations are needed.

1,288 citations


"Distinct systems for automatic and ..." refers background in this paper

  • ...The cerebellum may also be involved in motor timing [15,16] and shows particularly appropriate circuitry for the measurement of brief intervals [17–20]....

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Brain-imaging data revealed a partial overlap between neural systems involved in the performance of spatial versus temporal orientation of attention tasks, and hemispheric asymmetries revealed preferential right and left parietal activation for spatial and temporal attention, respectively.
Abstract: Although attention is distributed across time as well as space, the temporal allocation of attention has been less well researched than its spatial counterpart. A temporal analog of the covert spatial orientation task [Posner MI, Snyder CRR, Davidson BJ (1980) Attention and the detection of signals. J Exp Psychol Gen 109:160-174] was developed to compare the neural systems involved in directing attention to spatial locations versus time intervals. We asked whether there exists a general system for allocating attentional resources, independent of stimulus dimension, or whether functionally specialized brain regions are recruited for directing attention toward spatial versus temporal aspects of the environment. We measured brain activity in seven healthy volunteers by using positron emission tomography (PET) and in eight healthy volunteers by using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The task manipulated cued attention to spatial locations (S) and temporal intervals (T) in a factorial design. Symbolic central cues oriented subjects toward S only (left or right), toward T only (300 msec or 1500 msec), toward both S and T simultaneously, or provided no information regarding S or T. Subjects also were scanned during a resting baseline condition. Behavioral data showed benefits and costs for performance during temporal attention similar to those established for spatial attention. Brain-imaging data revealed a partial overlap between neural systems involved in the performance of spatial versus temporal orientation of attention tasks. Additionally, hemispheric asymmetries revealed preferential right and left parietal activation for spatial and temporal attention, respectively. Parietal cortex was activated bilaterally by attending to both dimensions simultaneously. This is the first direct comparison of the neural correlates of attending to spatial versus temporal cues.

1,170 citations


"Distinct systems for automatic and ..." refers background in this paper

  • ...The neuroimaging literature Table 1 summarizes the published neuroimaging literature of primate time measurement [8;10;15;28-53] by listing the areas of brain activity reported in each study....

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  • ...4 rather than a more rigorous control as in [32], but see our bibliographic annotations for exact details....

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  • ...In papers reporting multiple datasets, each set is included as a separate row in the table (see [8;32;47;49-51])....

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A dynamic network of cortical-subcortical activation associated with different components of temporal information processing is illustrated, implicating these systems in attention and temporary maintenance of intervals.
Abstract: Timing is crucial to many aspects of human performance. To better understand its neural underpinnings, we used event-related fMRI to examine the time course of activation associated with different components of a time perception task. We distinguished systems associated with encoding time intervals from those related to comparing intervals and implementing a response. Activation in the basal ganglia occurred early, and was uniquely associated with encoding time intervals, whereas cerebellar activation unfolded late, suggesting an involvement in processes other than explicit timing. Early cortical activation associated with encoding of time intervals was observed in the right inferior parietal cortex and bilateral premotor cortex, implicating these systems in attention and temporary maintenance of intervals. Late activation in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex emerged during comparison of time intervals. Our results illustrate a dynamic network of cortical-subcortical activation associated with different components of temporal information processing.

823 citations


"Distinct systems for automatic and ..." refers background in this paper

  • ...The neuroimaging literature Table 1 summarizes the published neuroimaging literature of primate time measurement [8;10;15;28-53] by listing the areas of brain activity reported in each study....

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  • ...same regions are active even when more complete cognitive subtractions are used [8;15;48] however, suggests their bona fida involvement in temporal processing....

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