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Rodriguez-Larios J, Rassi E, Mendoza G, Merchant H, Haegens S. Common neural mechanisms supporting time judgements in humans and monkeys. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2024:2024.04.25.591075. [PMID: 38712259 PMCID: PMC11071527 DOI: 10.1101/2024.04.25.591075] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/08/2024]
Abstract
There has been an increasing interest in identifying the biological underpinnings of human time perception, for which purpose research in non-human primates (NHP) is common. Although previous work, based on behaviour, suggests that similar mechanisms support time perception across species, the neural correlates of time estimation in humans and NHP have not been directly compared. In this study, we assess whether brain evoked responses during a time categorization task are similar across species. Specifically, we assess putative differences in post-interval evoked potentials as a function of perceived duration in human EEG (N = 24) and local field potential (LFP) and spike recordings in pre-supplementary motor area (pre-SMA) of one monkey. Event-related potentials (ERPs) differed significantly after the presentation of the temporal interval between "short" and "long" perceived durations in both species, even when the objective duration of the stimuli was the same. Interestingly, the polarity of the reported ERPs was reversed for incorrect trials (i.e., the ERP of a "long" stimulus looked like the ERP of a "short" stimulus when a time categorization error was made). Hence, our results show that post-interval potentials reflect the perceived (rather than the objective) duration of the presented time interval in both NHP and humans. In addition, firing rates in monkey's pre-SMA also differed significantly between short and long perceived durations and were reversed in incorrect trials. Together, our results show that common neural mechanisms support time categorization in NHP and humans, thereby suggesting that NHP are a good model for investigating human time perception.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Elie Rassi
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
- Department of Psychology, Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, Paris-Lodron-University of Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria
| | - Germán Mendoza
- Instituto de Neurobiología, UNAM, Campus Juriquilla, Queretaro, Mexico
| | - Hugo Merchant
- Instituto de Neurobiología, UNAM, Campus Juriquilla, Queretaro, Mexico
| | - Saskia Haegens
- Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University, New York, USA
- Division of Systems Neuroscience, New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, USA
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Bueno FD, Nobre AC, Cravo AM. Time for What? Dissociating Explicit Timing Tasks through Electrophysiological Signatures. eNeuro 2024; 11:ENEURO.0351-23.2023. [PMID: 38272676 PMCID: PMC10884563 DOI: 10.1523/eneuro.0351-23.2023] [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: 09/11/2023] [Revised: 11/17/2023] [Accepted: 12/04/2023] [Indexed: 01/27/2024] Open
Abstract
Estimating durations between hundreds of milliseconds and seconds is essential for several daily tasks. Explicit timing tasks, which require participants to estimate durations to make a comparison (time for perception) or to reproduce them (time for action), are often used to investigate psychological and neural timing mechanisms. Recent studies have proposed that mechanisms may depend on specific task requirements. In this study, we conducted electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings on human participants as they estimated intervals in different task contexts to investigate the extent to which timing mechanisms depend on the nature of the task. We compared the neural processing of identical visual reference stimuli in two different tasks, in which stimulus durations were either perceptually compared or motorically reproduced in separate experimental blocks. Using multivariate pattern analyses, we could successfully decode the duration and the task of reference stimuli. We found evidence for both overlapping timing mechanisms across tasks as well as recruitment of task-dependent processes for comparing intervals for different purposes. Our findings suggest both core and specialized timing functions are recruited to support explicit timing tasks.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fernanda D Bueno
- Center for Mathematics, Computing and Cognition (CMCC), Federal University of ABC (UFABC), São Bernardo do Campo 09606-045, Brazil
| | - Anna C Nobre
- Oxford Centre for Human Brain Activity, Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 7JX, United Kingdom
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX2 6GG, United Kingdom
| | - André M Cravo
- Center for Mathematics, Computing and Cognition (CMCC), Federal University of ABC (UFABC), São Bernardo do Campo 09606-045, Brazil
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Baykan C, Zhu X, Zinchenko A, Müller HJ, Shi Z. Electrophysiological signatures of temporal context in the bisection task. Exp Brain Res 2023; 241:2081-2096. [PMID: 37460622 PMCID: PMC10386970 DOI: 10.1007/s00221-023-06670-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/03/2023] [Accepted: 07/10/2023] [Indexed: 07/31/2023]
Abstract
Despite having relatively accurate timing, subjective time can be influenced by various contexts, such as stimulus spacing and sample frequency. Several electroencephalographic (EEG) components have been associated with timing, including the contingent negative variation (CNV), offset P2, and late positive component of timing (LPCt). However, the specific role of these components in the contextual modulation of perceived time remains unclear. In this study, we conducted two temporal bisection experiments to investigate this issue. Participants had to judge whether a test duration was close to a short or long standard. Unbeknownst to them, we manipulated the stimulus spacing (Experiment 1) and sample frequency (Experiment 2) to create short and long contexts while maintaining consistent test ranges and standards across different sessions. The results revealed that the bisection threshold shifted towards the ensemble mean, and both CNV and LPCt were sensitive to context modulation. In the short context, the CNV exhibited an increased climbing rate compared to the long context, whereas the LPCt displayed reduced amplitude and latency. These findings suggest that the CNV represents an expectancy wave preceding a temporal decision process, while the LPCt reflects the decision-making process itself, with both components influenced by the temporal context.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cemre Baykan
- General and Experimental Psychology, Department of Psychology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Leopoldstr. 13, 80802, Munich, Germany.
| | - Xiuna Zhu
- General and Experimental Psychology, Department of Psychology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Leopoldstr. 13, 80802, Munich, Germany
| | - Artyom Zinchenko
- General and Experimental Psychology, Department of Psychology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Leopoldstr. 13, 80802, Munich, Germany
| | - Hermann J Müller
- General and Experimental Psychology, Department of Psychology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Leopoldstr. 13, 80802, Munich, Germany
| | - Zhuanghua Shi
- General and Experimental Psychology, Department of Psychology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Leopoldstr. 13, 80802, Munich, Germany
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Post-interval potentials in temporal judgements. Exp Brain Res 2023; 241:917-926. [PMID: 36806967 PMCID: PMC9985573 DOI: 10.1007/s00221-023-06568-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/02/2021] [Accepted: 02/04/2023] [Indexed: 02/23/2023]
Abstract
Research suggests that post-stimulus positive deflections could be associated with timing. We compared offset-locked potentials N1, P2, N1P2, and late positive component (LPC) in temporal generalization and temporal bisection-with visual probe intervals. In both tasks, the LPC amplitude decreased with the duration of the current probe interval. A larger LPC was found after shorter intervals, whereas other ERP amplitudes did not change between tasks or across durations. We also found that the LPC for different responses indicates subjective time. We discussed our findings in relation to theories of human timing.
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Ofir N, Landau AN. Neural signatures of evidence accumulation in temporal decisions. Curr Biol 2022; 32:4093-4100.e6. [PMID: 36007527 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2022.08.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/13/2022] [Revised: 06/14/2022] [Accepted: 08/02/2022] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Cognitive models of interval timing can be formulated as an accumulation-to-bound process.1-5 However, the physiological manifestation of such processes has not yet been identified. We used electroencephalography (EEG) to measure the neural responses of participants while they performed a temporal bisection task in which they were requested to categorize the duration of visual stimuli as short or long.6 We found that the stimulus-offset and response-locked activity depends on both stimulus duration and the participants' decision. To relate this activity to the underlying cognitive processes, we used a drift-diffusion model.7 The model includes a noisy accumulator starting with the stimulus onset and a decision threshold. According to the model, a stimulus duration will be categorized as "long" if the accumulator reaches the threshold during stimulus presentation. Otherwise, it will be categorized as "short." We found that at the offset of stimulus presentation, an EEG response marks the distance of the accumulator from the threshold. Therefore, this model offers an accurate description of our behavioral data as well as the EEG response using the same two model parameters. We then replicated this finding in an identical experiment conducted in the tactile domain. We also extended this finding to two different temporal ranges (sub- and supra-second). Taken together, the work provides a new way to study the cognitive processes underlying temporal decisions, using a combination of behavior, EEG, and modeling.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nir Ofir
- Department of Psychology, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mt. Scopus, Jerusalem 9190501, Israel; Department of Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mt. Scopus, Jerusalem 9190501, Israel; Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Edmond J. Safra Campus, Jerusalem 9190401, Israel.
| | - Ayelet N Landau
- Department of Psychology, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mt. Scopus, Jerusalem 9190501, Israel; Department of Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mt. Scopus, Jerusalem 9190501, Israel.
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