Time perception

About: Time perception is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 1918 publications have been published within this topic receiving 87020 citations.

Metacognition of time perception

Abstract: It has been demonstrated that people have insight into the accuracy of their own decision-making processes. This is evident from correlations between decisional confidence and objective task performance, and is often described as a form of metacognition, as it requires that the brain has formed an accurate reportable estimate of the precision with which it has encoded information. Metacognitive insight has been demonstrated for judgments concerning diverse visual properties, including orientation (de Gardelle & Mamassian, 2014), contrast discrimination (Fleming, Weil, Nagy, Dolan, & Rees, 2010), and direction (Ratcliff & Starns, 2013). Here we report that the human brain also forms reportable estimates of the precision with which it has encoded temporal relationships. We examined metacognitive insight into precision during a subjective timing task (audio-visual temporal order judgments), and into accuracy during an objective timing task (a three alternative audio-visual odd-one-out task varying audio-visual temporal offset). In both tasks we found that people expressed levels of confidence that were well correlated with performance. This cannot be attributed to low confidence on trials wherein people simply missed the stimulus presentation, or suffered a lapse in concentration, as participants were required to indicate when this happened, and such trials were repeated. Our data indicate that the human brain accurately estimates the precision with which it has encoded audio-visual timing relationships on a trial-by-trial basis. Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2015.

Effect of Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on dorsolateral prefrontal cortex on reproduction of time

Abstract: There is evidence supporting the importance of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) in the perception of time. The tDCS (transcranial direct current stimulation) modulates cortical excitability and can be applied to influence the performance of different brain functions, such as timing. Our objective was to evaluate the effect of stimulation of right and left DLPFC on a task of production of time. 26 patients underwent transcranial stimulation of 2mA over the DLPFC for 20 min (anodic, cathodic or sham). Then they participated in a reproduction task of 4 and 8 seconds. Through ANOVA for repeated measures for stimulating factors (anode, cathode, sham), intervals (4s and / or 8s) and location (left and right), we observed that the anodic stimulation of the right DLPFC resulted in greater underestimation in 4-seconds interval, while the use of cathodic current on the left DLPFC caused an overestimation of 4-seconds interval. Our results confirm the importance of the right DLPFC in the perception of time. Furthermore, the observed asymmetric effect is interesting, confirming that the left DLPFC is associated with the executive, important roles in perception of time.

Omitted Stimulus Potential Depends on the Sensory Modality.

Abstract: Determining the characteristics of Omitted Stimulus Potential (OSP) parameters using different sensory modalities is important because they reflect timing processes and have a substantial influence on time perception. At the same time, the central mechanisms of time perception associated with sensory processing can modulate cortical brain waves related to cognition. This experiment tested the relationship between parameters of the whole OSP brain wave when trains of auditory, visual or somatosensory stimuli were applied. Twenty healthy young college volunteers completed within‑subjects trials with sensory stimuli at a fixed frequency of 0.5 Hz that ceased unpredictably. These passive trials required no behavioural response and were administered to measure the complete set of OSP (i.e., the rate of rise, amplitude and peak latency). OSPs showed a faster rate of rise for auditory stimuli compared to visual or somatosensory stimuli. Auditory stimuli also produced a shorter time to peak and higher amplitude waves. No significant differences were obtained between visual and somatosensory waves. The results suggest that the brain handles interval timing and expectation with greater efficiency for the auditory system compared to other sensory modalities. This auditory supremacy is congruent with previous behavioural studies using missing stimulus tasks and could be useful for clinical purposes, for example, designing auditory‑based brain‑computer interfaces for patients with motor disabilities and visual impairment. The rate of rise is a dynamic measure that should be included in the ERPs analysis.

Stroking trajectory shapes velocity effects on pleasantness and other touch percepts.

Abstract: Research has identified an inverted u-shaped relationship between the pleasantness of arm stroking and stroking velocity. However, the generalizability of this relationship is questionable as much of the work relied on the rotary tactile stimulator (RTS), which strokes skin with force varying along an arc and confounds stimulus velocity with duration. We explored how these parameters shape the subjective evaluation of touch. In Study 1, one group of participants was stroked by the RTS, while two other groups were stroked by a new robot capable of different stroking trajectories. Participants were stroked at five velocities and rated pleasantness, humanness, intensity, and roughness. In Study 2, participants were stroked by the new robot imitating the trajectory of the RTS exactly, imitating it while controlling stimulus duration, or moving linearly or ovally with both constant force and duration. Participants rated pleasantness and humanness. Although stroke velocity was related to both pleasantness and humanness in an inverted u-shaped manner, stimulus trajectory modulated this relationship and the association between velocity and the other ratings. Together, our results clearly link stroking velocity to the perception of touch but highlight that this relationship is shaped by other physical parameters including touch duration and spatial pattern. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).