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Wang X, Shi S, Bao Y. Parallel processes of temporal control in the supplementary motor area and the frontoparietal circuit. Psych J 2024; 13:355-368. [PMID: 38105556 PMCID: PMC11169752 DOI: 10.1002/pchj.701] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/28/2023] [Accepted: 10/04/2023] [Indexed: 12/19/2023]
Abstract
Durations in the several seconds' range are cognitively accessible during active timing. Functional neuroimaging studies suggest the engagement of the basal ganglia (BG) and supplementary motor area (SMA). However, their functional relevance and arrangement remain unclear because non-timing cognitive processes temporally coincide with the active timing. To examine the potential contamination by parallel processes, we introduced a sensory control and a motor control to the duration-reproduction task. By comparing their hemodynamic functions, we decomposed the neural activities in multiple brain loci linked to different cognitive processes. Our results show a dissociation of two cortical neural circuits: the SMA for both active timing and motor preparation, followed by a prefrontal-parietal circuit related to duration working memory. We argue that these cortical processes represent duration as the content but at different levels of abstraction, while the subcortical structures, including the BG and thalamus, provide the logistic basis of timing by coordinating the temporal framework across brain structures.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xuanyu Wang
- School of Psychological and Cognitive SciencesPeking UniversityBeijingChina
- Graduate School of Systemic NeurosciencesLudwig‐Maximilians‐Universität MünchenMunichGermany
| | - Shunyu Shi
- School of Psychological and Cognitive SciencesPeking UniversityBeijingChina
| | - Yan Bao
- School of Psychological and Cognitive SciencesPeking UniversityBeijingChina
- Institute of Medical Psychology, Ludwig‐Maximilians‐Universität MünchenMunichGermany
- Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavior and Mental HealthPeking UniversityBeijingChina
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Schlichting N, Fritz C, Zimmermann E. Motor variability modulates calibration of precisely timed movements. iScience 2023; 26:107204. [PMID: 37519900 PMCID: PMC10384242 DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2023.107204] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/28/2022] [Revised: 02/23/2023] [Accepted: 06/21/2023] [Indexed: 08/01/2023] Open
Abstract
Interacting with the environment often requires precisely timed movements, challenging the brain to minimize the detrimental impact of neural noise. Recent research demonstrates that the brain exploits the variability of its temporal estimates and recalibrates perception accordingly. Time-critical movements, however, contain a sensory measurement and a motor stage. The brain must have knowledge of both in order to avoid maladapted behavior. By manipulating sensory and motor variability, we show that the sensorimotor system recalibrates sensory and motor uncertainty separately. Serial dependencies between observed interval durations in the previous and motor reproductions in the current trial were weighted by the variability of movements. These serial dependencies generalized across different effectors, but not to a visual discrimination task. Our results suggest that the brain has accurate knowledge about contributions of motor uncertainty to errors in temporal movements. This knowledge about motor uncertainty seems to be processed separately from knowledge about sensory uncertainty.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nadine Schlichting
- Institute for Experimental Psychology, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf 40225, Germany
| | - Clara Fritz
- Institute for Experimental Psychology, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf 40225, Germany
| | - Eckart Zimmermann
- Institute for Experimental Psychology, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf 40225, Germany
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3
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Maaß SC, de Jong J, van Maanen L, van Rijn H. Conceptually plausible Bayesian inference in interval timing. ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE 2021; 8:201844. [PMID: 34457319 PMCID: PMC8371368 DOI: 10.1098/rsos.201844] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/14/2020] [Accepted: 07/20/2021] [Indexed: 05/12/2023]
Abstract
In a world that is uncertain and noisy, perception makes use of optimization procedures that rely on the statistical properties of previous experiences. A well-known example of this phenomenon is the central tendency effect observed in many psychophysical modalities. For example, in interval timing tasks, previous experiences influence the current percept, pulling behavioural responses towards the mean. In Bayesian observer models, these previous experiences are typically modelled by unimodal statistical distributions, referred to as the prior. Here, we critically assess the validity of the assumptions underlying these models and propose a model that allows for more flexible, yet conceptually more plausible, modelling of empirical distributions. By representing previous experiences as a mixture of lognormal distributions, this model can be parametrized to mimic different unimodal distributions and thus extends previous instantiations of Bayesian observer models. We fit the mixture lognormal model to published interval timing data of healthy young adults and a clinical population of aged mild cognitive impairment patients and age-matched controls, and demonstrate that this model better explains behavioural data and provides new insights into the mechanisms that underlie the behaviour of a memory-affected clinical population.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sarah C. Maaß
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Groningen, Grote Kruisstraat 2/1, 9712TS Groningen, The Netherlands
- Behavioral and Cognitive Neurosciences, University of Groningen, Grote Kruisstraat 2/1, 9712TS Groningen, The Netherlands
- Aging and Cognition Research Group, German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), Leipziger Straße 44, 39120 Magdeburg, Germany
| | - Joost de Jong
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Groningen, Grote Kruisstraat 2/1, 9712TS Groningen, The Netherlands
- Behavioral and Cognitive Neurosciences, University of Groningen, Grote Kruisstraat 2/1, 9712TS Groningen, The Netherlands
| | - Leendert van Maanen
- Department of Experimental Psychology, Utrecht University, Heidelberglaan 1, 3584 CS Utrecht, The Netherlands
| | - Hedderik van Rijn
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Groningen, Grote Kruisstraat 2/1, 9712TS Groningen, The Netherlands
- Behavioral and Cognitive Neurosciences, University of Groningen, Grote Kruisstraat 2/1, 9712TS Groningen, The Netherlands
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Damsma A, Schlichting N, van Rijn H. Temporal Context Actively Shapes EEG Signatures of Time Perception. J Neurosci 2021; 41:4514-4523. [PMID: 33833083 PMCID: PMC8152605 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.0628-20.2021] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/17/2020] [Revised: 03/24/2021] [Accepted: 03/27/2021] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Our subjective perception of time is optimized to temporal regularities in the environment. This is illustrated by the central tendency effect: When estimating a range of intervals, short intervals are overestimated, whereas long intervals are underestimated to reduce the overall estimation error. Most models of interval timing ascribe this effect to the weighting of the current interval with previous memory traces after the interval has been perceived. Alternatively, the perception of the duration could already be flexibly tuned to its temporal context. We investigated this hypothesis using an interval reproduction task in which human participants (both sexes) reproduced a shorter and longer interval range. As expected, reproductions were biased toward the subjective mean of each presented range. EEG analyses showed that temporal context indeed affected neural dynamics during the perception phase. Specifically, longer previous durations decreased contingent negative variation and P2 amplitude and increased beta power. In addition, multivariate pattern analysis showed that it is possible to decode context from the transient EEG signal quickly after both onset and offset of the perception phase. Together, these results suggest that temporal context creates dynamic expectations which actively affect the perception of duration.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT The subjective sense of duration does not arise in isolation, but is informed by previous experiences. This is demonstrated by abundant evidence showing that the production of duration estimates is biased toward previously experienced time intervals. However, it is yet unknown whether this temporal context actively affects perception or only asserts its influence in later, postperceptual stages as proposed by most current formal models of this task. Using an interval reproduction task, we show that EEG signatures flexibly adapt to the temporal context during perceptual encoding. Furthermore, interval history can be decoded from the transient EEG signal even when the current duration was identical. Thus, our results demonstrate that context actively influences perception.
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Affiliation(s)
- Atser Damsma
- Department of Psychology, University of Groningen, Groningen, 9712 TS, The Netherlands
| | - Nadine Schlichting
- Department of Psychology, University of Groningen, Groningen, 9712 TS, The Netherlands
| | - Hedderik van Rijn
- Department of Psychology, University of Groningen, Groningen, 9712 TS, The Netherlands
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Maaß S, Wolbers T, van Rijn H, Riemer M. Temporal context effects are associated with cognitive status in advanced age. PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH 2021; 86:512-521. [PMID: 33754182 PMCID: PMC8885470 DOI: 10.1007/s00426-021-01502-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/07/2020] [Accepted: 03/02/2021] [Indexed: 12/17/2022]
Abstract
The perception of temporal intervals changes during the life-span, and especially older adults demonstrate specific impairments of timing abilities. Recently, we demonstrated that timing performance and cognitive status are correlated in older adults, suggesting that timing tasks can serve as a behavioral marker for the development of dementia. Easy-to-administer and retest-capable timing tasks therefore have potential as diagnostic tools for tracking cognitive decline. However, before being tested in a clinical cohort study, a further validation and specification of the original findings is warranted. Here we introduce several modifications of the original task and investigated the effects of temporal context on time perception in older adults (> 65 years) with low versus high scores in the Montreal Cognitive Assessment survey (MoCA) and a test of memory functioning. In line with our previous work, we found that temporal context effects were more pronounced with increasing memory deficits, but also that these effects are stronger for realistic compared to abstract visual stimuli. Furthermore, we show that two distinct temporal contexts influence timing behavior in separate experimental blocks, as well as in a mixed block in which both contexts are presented together. These results replicate and extend our previous findings. They demonstrate the stability of the effect for different stimulus material and show that timing tasks can reveal valuable information about the cognitive status of older adults. In the future, these findings could serve as a basis for the development of a diagnostic tool for pathological cognitive decline at an early, pre-clinical stage.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sarah Maaß
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Groningen, Grote Kruisstraat 2/1, 9712-TS, Groningen, The Netherlands.,Behavioral and Cognitive Neurosciences, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands.,Aging and Cognition Research Group, German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), Magdeburg, Germany
| | - Thomas Wolbers
- Aging and Cognition Research Group, German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), Magdeburg, Germany.,Center for Behavioral Brain Sciences (CBBS), Magdeburg, Germany
| | - Hedderik van Rijn
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Groningen, Grote Kruisstraat 2/1, 9712-TS, Groningen, The Netherlands.,Behavioral and Cognitive Neurosciences, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
| | - Martin Riemer
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Groningen, Grote Kruisstraat 2/1, 9712-TS, Groningen, The Netherlands. .,Aging and Cognition Research Group, German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), Magdeburg, Germany. .,Center for Behavioral Brain Sciences (CBBS), Magdeburg, Germany.
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Maaß SC, Riemer M, Wolbers T, van Rijn H. Timing deficiencies in amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment: Disentangling clock and memory processes. Behav Brain Res 2019; 373:112110. [DOI: 10.1016/j.bbr.2019.112110] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/28/2019] [Revised: 06/27/2019] [Accepted: 07/20/2019] [Indexed: 12/16/2022]
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