Do we have a common mechanism for measuring time in the hundreds of millisecond range? Evidence from multiple-interval timing tasks.
In the present study we examined the performance variability of a group of 13 subjects in eight different tasks that involved the processing of temporal intervals in the subsecond range. These tasks differed in their sensorimotor processing (S; perception vs. production), the modality of the stimuli used to define the intervals (M; auditory vs. visual), and the number of intervals (N; one or four). Different analytical techniques were used to determine the existence of a central or distributed timing mechanism across tasks. The results showed a linear increase in performance variability as a function of the interval duration in all tasks. However, this compliance of the scalar property of interval timing was accompanied by a strong effect of S, N, and M and the interaction between these variables on the subjects' temporal accuracy. Thus the performance variability was larger not only in perceptual tasks than that in motor-timing tasks, but also using visual rather than auditory stimuli, and decreased as a function of the number of intervals. These results suggest the existence of a partially overlapping distributed mechanism underlying the ability to quantify time in different contexts.
Merchant
Hugo
H
Departamento de Neurobiología Conductual y Cognitiva, Instituto de Neurobiología, Campus UNAM-UAQ, Juriquilla, Querétaro, Qro 76230, Mexico. merch006@umn.edu
Zarco
Wilbert
W
Prado
Luis
L
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D004307:Dose-Response Relationship, Radiation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D009048:Motor Skills / Q000502:physiology; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D025341:Principal Component Analysis; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology*; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D013997:Time Factors; D013998:Time Perception / Q000502:physiology*