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Modality-independent role of the primary auditory cortex in time estimation

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Abstract

It has been argued that both modality-specific and supramodal mechanisms dedicated to time perception underlie the estimation of interval durations. While it is generally assumed that early sensory areas are dedicated to modality-specific time estimation, we hypothesized that early sensory areas such as the primary visual cortex or the auditory cortex might be involved in time perception independently of the sensory modality of the input. To test this possibility, we examined whether disruption of the primary visual cortex or the auditory cortex would disrupt time estimation of auditory stimuli and visual stimuli using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). We found that disruption of the auditory cortex impaired not only time estimation of auditory stimuli but also impaired that of visual stimuli to the same degree. This finding suggests a supramodal role of the auditory cortex in time perception. On the other hand, TMS over the primary visual cortex impaired performance only in visual time discrimination. These asymmetric contributions of the auditory and visual cortices in time perception may be explained by a superiority of the auditory cortex in temporal processing. Here, we propose that time is primarily encoded in the auditory system and that visual inputs are automatically encoded into an auditory representation in time discrimination tasks.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by Human Frontier Science Foundation for RK, Nuffield Bursary for HL and the U.K. medical council (G0700929) for VW.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience & Department of Psychology, University College London, 17 Queen Square, London, WC1N 3AR, UK

    Ryota Kanai & Vincent Walsh

  2. St Paul’s Girls’ School, Brook Green, London, W6 7BS, UK

    Harriet Lloyd

  3. Neuroimaging Laboratory, Fondazione Santa Lucia, via Ardeatina 306, 00179, Rome, Italy

    Domenica Bueti

Authors
  1. Ryota Kanai
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  2. Harriet Lloyd
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  3. Domenica Bueti
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  4. Vincent Walsh
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Correspondence to Ryota Kanai.

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Kanai, R., Lloyd, H., Bueti, D. et al. Modality-independent role of the primary auditory cortex in time estimation. Exp Brain Res 209, 465–471 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-011-2577-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-011-2577-3

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