A difficult task that requires participants to determine which of two stimuli appears first demonstrates how varying rhythms of brain activity may be synchronized to achieve a stable sense of time. The research is published in eNeuro .
Rather than processing information at a constant rate, the brain operates at different speeds. To better understand how such differences in processing speed are coordinated, Maria Concetta Morrone and colleagues asked nine participants to judge whether an on-screen blob or a sound was presented before the other by pressing a button. They found that the participants' decisions regarding the order of the audio-visual stimuli fluctuated with the time between presentation of the stimuli and their button-press. This synchronization occurred before the button-press, demonstrating a link between action preparation and perception. Overall, the study provides evidence for the influence of the motor system on our sense of time.
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Article: Perceptual Oscillation of Audio-Visual Time Simultaneity
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1523/ENEURO.0047-18.2018
Corresponding author: Maria Concetta Morrone (Università di Pisa, Italy), concetta@in.cnr.it
About eNeuro
eNeuro , the Society for Neuroscience's open-access journal launched in 2014, publishes rigorous neuroscience research with double-blind peer review that masks the identity of both the authors and reviewers, minimizing the potential for implicit biases. eNeuro is distinguished by a broader scope and balanced perspective achieved by publishing negative results, failure to replicate or replication studies. New research, computational neuroscience, theories and methods are also published.
About The Society for Neuroscience
The Society for Neuroscience is the world's largest organization of scientists and physicians devoted to understanding the brain and nervous system. The nonprofit organization, founded in 1969, now has nearly 37,000 members in more than 90 countries and over 130 chapters worldwide.
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