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At least 271 records · Page 15Linked to original sources
PubMed2002

Causality and the perception of time.

Does our perception of when an event occurs depend on whether we caused it? A recent study suggests that when we perceive our actions to cause an event, it seems to occur earlier than if we did not cause it.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1998

Variations on a theme by chopin: relations between perception and production of timing in music.

A note interonset interval (IOI) increment in mechanically timed music is more difficult to detect where expressive lengthening typically occurs in artistic performance. Experiment 1 showed this in an excerpt from a Chopin etude and extended the task to IOI decrement detection. A simple measure of variation in perceptual bias was derived that correlated highly with the average timing pattern of pianists' performances, more so than with acoustic surface properties of the music. Similar results, but decreasing correlations, were obtained in each of four subsequent experiments in which the music was simplified in stages. Although local psychoacoustic effects on time perception cannot be ruled out completely, the results suggest that musical structure (melodic-rhythmic grouping in particular) has temporal implications that are reflected not only in musicians' motor behavior but also in listeners' time-keeping abilities.

Analysis of Variance↗
PubMed1998

Temporal processing in the basal ganglia.

This study investigated the role of the basal ganglia in timing operations. Nondemented, medicated Parkinson's disease (PD) patients and controls were tested on 2 motor-timing tasks (paced finger tapping at a 300- or 600-ms target interval), 2 time perception tasks (duration perception wherein the interval between the standard tone pair was 300 or 600 ms), and 2 tasks that controlled for the auditory processing (frequency perception) demands of the time perception task and the movement rate (rapid tapping) in the motor-timing task. Using A.M. Wing and A.B. Kristofferson's (1973) model, the total variability in motor timing was partitioned into a clock component, which reflects central timekeeping operations, and a motor delay component, which estimates random variability due to response implementation processes. The PD group was impaired at both target intervals of the time perception and motor-timing tasks. Impaired motor timing was due to elevated clock but not motor delay variability. The findings implicate the basal ganglia and its thalamocortical connections in timing operations.

Aged↗
PubMed2002

Time, space, and short-term memory.

This article describes a linear timekeeping system that can account for four main results from the human time-production literature: (1) Variability of interresponse intervals (IRIs) in repetitive finger-tapping tasks increases with mean IRI; (2) The difference between mean and required IRI is a roughly sinusoidal function of required IRI (the "oscillator signature"); (3) The function relating standard deviation of IRI to relative phase, phi, in bimanual tapping has minima at relative phases of 0, 0.5, and 1, and maxima close to 0.5 (the "seagull" effect); (4) In the production of polyrhythms, the ratios that can be produced get "simpler" as response frequency increases. It is shown that all these phenomena can be accounted for with a linear timekeeper model. The model is rendered spatially with delay lines whose lengths provide a basis for varying time intervals. The model makes new predictions about timing, provides an account of time perception and time production, and predicts the existence of short-term memory.

Humans↗
PubMed1981

The effect of search time on perception.

A group of 100 carefully selected chest radiographs was read by ten observers, five experienced and five inexperienced. The radiographs were chosen to present the readers with a disproportionately large number of both subtle abnormalities and nonpulmonary lesions. Each reader was allowed to search the radiographs for as long as appropriate, up to a maximum of four minutes. The length of time taken for each observation was recorded to the nearest second. The time-perception data were plotted on both linear and semilogarithmic graphs. The results showed that experienced readers concluded their visual search while positive detection rate was higher than the rate for false-positives. For lesions in the central phasic, with both a rapid and a slow component of perception. If these data are plotted on a semilogarithmic scale, each of the two components plots as a straight line. For lesions in the periphery of the radiograph (chest wall and upper abdomen), the time-perception curve is monophasic, showing only a slow component.

False Negative Reactions↗
PubMed2004

Neural representation of interval encoding and decision making.

Our perception of time depends on multiple psychological processes that allow us to anticipate events. In this study, we used event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to differentiate neural systems involved in formulating representations of time from processes associated with making decisions about their duration. A time perception task consisting of two randomly presented standard intervals was used to ensure that intervals were encoded on each trial and to enhance memory requirements. During the encoding phase of a trial, activation was observed in the right caudate nucleus, right inferior parietal cortex and left cerebellum. Activation in these regions correlated with timing sensitivity (coefficient of variation). In contrast, encoding-related activity in the right parahippocampus and hippocampus correlated with the bisection point and right precuneus activation was associated with a measure of memory distortion. Decision processes were studied by examining brain activation during the decision phase of a trial that was associated with the difficulty of interval discriminations. Activation in the right parahippocampus was greater for easier than harder discriminations. In contrast, activation was greater for harder than easier discriminations in systems involved in working memory (left middle-frontal and parietal cortex) and auditory rehearsal (left inferior-frontal and superior-temporal cortex). Activity in the auditory rehearsal network correlated with memory distortion. Our results support the independence of systems that mediate interval encoding and decision processes. The results also suggest that distortions in memory for time may be due to strategic processing in cortical systems involved in either encoding or rehearsal.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed2005

Borderline personality disorder, impulsivity, and the orbitofrontal cortex.

OBJECTIVE: Orbitofrontal cortex lesions produce disinhibited or socially inappropriate behavior and emotional irregularities. Characteristics of borderline personality disorder include impulsivity and affective instability. The authors investigated whether aspects of borderline personality disorder, in particular impulsivity, are associated with orbitofrontal cortex dysfunction. METHOD: Measures of personality, emotion, impulsivity, time perception, sensitivity to reinforcers, and spatial working memory were administered to patients with borderline personality disorder (N=19), patients with orbitofrontal cortex lesions (N=23), patients with lesions in the prefrontal cortex but not in the orbitofrontal cortex (N=20), and healthy comparison subjects (N=39). RESULTS: The patients with orbitofrontal cortex lesions and the patients with borderline personality disorder performed similarly on several measures. Both groups were more impulsive and reported more inappropriate behaviors, borderline personality disorder characteristics, and anger and less happiness than the two comparison groups, and both groups were less open to experience and had a faster perception of time (underproduced time) than the healthy comparison subjects. The patients with orbitofrontal cortex lesions and the borderline personality disorder patients performed differently on other measures. The borderline personality disorder patients were less extraverted and conscientious and more neurotic and emotional than all other groups. Patients with orbitofrontal cortex lesions had deficits in reversing stimulus-reinforcer associations and a faster perception of time (overestimated time) than the healthy comparison subjects. CONCLUSIONS: Orbitofrontal cortex dysfunction may contribute to some core characteristics of borderline personality disorder, in particular impulsivity. Other characteristics of borderline personality disorder, such as high levels of emotionality and personality irregularities, do not appear to be related to the type of dysfunction produced by orbitofrontal cortex damage. The similarities and differences found between the borderline personality disorder patients and the patients with orbitofrontal cortex lesions may lead to a better understanding of the etiology of borderline personality disorder and the functions of the orbitofrontal cortex.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1998

Why "sounds are judged longer than lights": application of a model of the internal clock in humans.

Three experiments, using temporal generalization and verbal estimation methods, studied judgements of durations of auditory (500-Hz tone) and visual (14-cm blue square) stimuli. With both methods, auditory stimuli were judged longer, and less variable, than visual ones. The verbal estimation experiments used stimuli from 77 to 1183 msec in length, and the slope of the function relating mean estimate to real length differed between modalities (but the intercept did not), consistent with the idea that a pacemaker generating duration representations ran faster for auditory than for visual stimuli. The different variability of auditory and visual stimuli was attributed to differential variability in the operation of a switch of a pacemaker-accumulator clock, and experimental data suggested that such switch effects were separable from changes in pacemaker speed. Overall, the work showed how a clock model consistent with scalar timing theory, the leading account of animal timing, can address an issue derived from the classical literature on human time perception.

Attention↗
PubMed1995

Localization of a cerebellar timing process using PET.

We used positron emission tomography (PET) to localize a cerebellar timing function. Six healthy volunteers estimated time differences by comparing a test interval (defined by two tones) with a standard interval. In the timing condition, subjects lifted their right index finger if the test interval was shorter and their right middle finger if it was longer than the standard interval. In the control condition, the two intervals were identical and subjects had to alternate between lifting their index and middle fingers. We examined regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) using the standard C15O2 inhalation technique. Comparison of control and rest conditions revealed significant increases of rCBF during the control condition in the inferior parts of the ipsilateral cerebellar hemisphere, reflecting finger movements. Comparison of timing and control conditions showed additional activations of the cerebellar vermis and hemispheres bilaterally during the timing condition, reflecting the cerebellar timing process. We conclude that the cerebellum is involved in time-critical perception ("timing"). This nonmotor task can be separated from a motor task (finger movement).

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed1980

Cerebral asymmetry in the perceived duration of color stimuli.

20 right-handed males judged the duration of small and large colored circles, which were briefly exposed in the left, center, and right visual fields. Perceived duration was a logarithmic function of exposure duration and a positive function of size and chromaticity. Over-all accuracy was equivalent in the left and right visual fields, but the effects of chromaticity and duration on subjects' judgments were asymmetrical. These and other findings suggest a two-process model of time perception in which there is right hemispheric control over a visual information processor and left hemispheric control over a timer.

Color Perception↗
PubMed1981

Growth of apparent duration: effect of melodic and non-melodic tonal variation.

Time estimates of 12 intervals of 15 to 65 sec. duration were obtained from 30 subjects by one of two methods, magnitude estimation and cross-modal matching. Three kinds of sequences of musical notes were presented during stimulus intervals; repetitive, melodic, and random. Within all sequences, notes were of equal duration and with equal pauses between them. In all cases, the relationship between perceived and physical time is consistent with Stevens' power law. Exponents derived from both kinds of estimates were significantly affected by the content of the interval. Exponents derived for repetitive sequences were not different from 1 and were significantly larger than exponents derived from random or melodic sequences. These results are inconsistent with the view that the predictability, familiarity, or codability of event occurring in the stimulus interval is inversely related to the perceived duration of that interval. There is some indication that the effect of the content of the interval on judgments of duration varies with the magnitude of the duration being judged. Perhaps the relationship holds only within certain parameters and, when these are exceeded, other factors mask the effect. A two-process theory of time perception, one which considers these other factors and explains the present results, is proposed.

Humans↗