Symposium 1
Wednesday, October 4th
9:00-10:15
Functional and neural mechanisms of implicit and explicit timing and their dissociation in aging and clinical populations
Jennifer Coull1, Yuko Yotsumoto2, Sophie Herbst3, Giovanna Mioni4, Marcus Missal5
1Aix-Marseille University & CNRS, Marseille, France.
2University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan. 3INSERM, CEA, CNRS, Université Paris-Saclay, Paris, France.
4University of Padova, Padua, Italy. 5Université catholique de Louvain, Leuven, Belgium
Time can be perceived explicitly or implicitly. Explicit timing involves conscious and voluntary judgement of interval time, while implicit timing influences behavior subconsciously or automatically. For instance, we can explicitly judge whether the duration of a red traffic light is longer than an amber one. By contrast, the increasing wait at a red traffic light might implicitly influence our level of motor preparedness. Despite its ubiquity in everyday life, there are fewer studies on implicit timing than explicit timing, and the differences and similarities between the two still need to be clarified.
In the laboratory, explicit timing is typically measured using bisection, discrimination, or reproduction tasks while implicit timing is often evaluated through response times to stimuli that adhere to a temporal pattern and/or are more or less temporally predictable. This symposium aims to introduce studies that enhance our understanding of implicit timing and its neural mechanisms. The chairperson will provide a brief overview of explicit and implicit timing, followed by four presentations that compare and contrast the functional and neural mechanisms of implicit and explicit timing, over a range of complementary methodologies (magnetoencephalography (MEG), modelling, clinical and aging populations). The symposium will conclude with a discussion among the presenters and audience to explore future research directions and to highlight the utility and ecological validity of implicit timing paradigms.
Keywords: foreperiod, prediction, cognitive decline, Parkinson’s Disease, oculomotor
The Nonlinearity Issue in Modeling Foreperiod Effect: Origins, Solution, Implications. Yuko Yotsumoto, Amirmahmoud Houshmand Chatroudi, Giovanna Mioni
Implicit and explicit timing — shared or separate mechanisms? Sophie K. Herbst
Explicit and implicit timing in healthy and pathological aging. Giovanna Mioni*, Mariagrazia Capizzi, Antonino Visalli
The implicit and explicit timing of eye movements. Marcus Missal
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Symposium 2
Wednesday, October 4th
9:00-10:15
Rhythmic synchronization in and out of the brain, from single interval estimations to interpersonal interaction. A cross-species and translational perspective
Vani G. Rajendran1, Franklenin Sierra2,3,4, Antonio Criscuolo5, Mattia Rosso6,7
1Instituto de Neurobiología, UNAM, Queretaro, Mexico.
2School of Computer Science and Statistics, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland.
3ADAPT Centre, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland.
4Department of Cognitive Neuropsychology, Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics, Frankfurt, Germany.
5Department of Neuropsychology & Psychopharmacology, Maastricht University, Maastricht, Netherlands.
6IPEM Institute for Systematic Musicology – Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
7Université de Lille, ULR 4072 – PSITEC, Lille, France
Rhythm is a fundamental dimension of our daily sensory experience that also drives our behaviour, from dancing to music to interacting with each other. In this symposium, we will discuss neurophysiological and behavioral building blocks for these timing capacities through the lens of different methodological approaches and work with human and nonhuman subjects. The talks will build from (i) estimation of time intervals between sensory events, to (ii) neural tracking and (iii) behavioral synchronization to continuous rhythmic streams across human populations and nonhuman primates, and finally to interpersonal coupling as the substrate for (iv) neural and behavioral synchronization in social contexts.
The first talk will focus on the link between the perception of temporal intervals and endogenous attentive rhythms in the theta frequency band (3-8 Hz). If temporal perception depends on how well the incoming stimulus duration matches a participant’s endogenous attentive rhythm, then performance should be optimal for events centered at the core of the theta band, which is what was found. The perception of single intervals is the building block for the processing of sequences of intervals that establish a rhythm. So does this link between endogenous and external rhythms hold when exposed to continuous sensory streams?
The second talk will address this by proposing a new methodology based on electroencephalography (EEG) that can disentangle truly oscillatory phenomena and entrainment from series of entrainment-like time-locked evoked responses while listening to isochronous rhythms. A combined cross-species (animal models) and translational (stroke-lesion patients) approach additionally explores the phylogenetic trajectory and the causal contribution of cortico-subcortical structures in basic rhythm processing, shedding light on the sensorimotor perception-action loops that determine individual capacities to process and synchronize with rhythms.
The third talk pushes the phylogenetic and stimulus complexity dimensions to a new limit by testing the capacity for nonhuman primates to synchronize to real music. Recent work in macaques has demonstrated human-like tapping to isochronous rhythms, with population dynamics in premotor areas playing a key role in controlling this behavior. Synchronization to real music involves an additional level of abstraction thought to be unique to humans, but here we will present evidence that this is a capacity that macaques also share.
Beyond the capacity for synchronization to sensory stimuli in different species is synchronization to each other, for example in social situations. The final talk will focus on this social dimension of human rhythmic interactions through a systematic investigation of how fundamental dimensions of perceptual coupling affect the behavioral and neural dynamics underlying interpersonal synchronization. At the behavioral level, attractor dynamics depend on the sensory modality mediating the coupling. At the neural level, a ~20Hz beta component was identified as being modulated by both self-generated and other-generated movement cycles, suggesting a shared oscillatory mechanism for coupling performed and perceived rhythmic movements.
Altogether, this symposium offers an encompassing perspective on the functional importance of timing and synchronization in our everyday life, and further reveals neural and behavioral mechanisms underlying the capacities to perceive and interact with timing information in different contexts.
Keywords: Rhythm perception – Time distortions – Neurophysiology – Nonhuman primates – Synchronization
Optimal temporal discrimination for visual intervals. Franklenin Sierra*, David Poeppel, Alessandro Tavano
A cross-species and translational perspective on basic neural oscillatory mechanisms to encode and predict temporal regularities. A. Criscuolo*, M. Schwartze, H. Merchant, S.A. Kotz
Human-like synchronization to music in the macaque. Vani G. Rajendran*, Hugo Merchant
Dyadic rhythmic interactions. Coordination dynamics and informational structures. Mattia Rosso*, Pieter-Jan Maes, Marc Leman
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Symposium 3
Wednesday, October 4th
10:45-12:00
Passage of time judgments: History, theory and new data
John WEARDEN, Natalia MARTINELLI, Ruth OGDEN, Sylvie DROIT-VOLET
1Keele University, Keele, United Kingdom. 2Université Clermont Auvergne, CNRS, Clermont-Ferrand, France. 3Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, United Kingdom
In daily life, people often claim that time passes faster or slower than usual or that it passes more quickly with age. This phenomenological experience of the speed of the passage of time is well known and has been well described in the literature (Gruber et al., 2018; Wearden, 2015). In this symposium, John Wearden (Keele university, U.K.) will review the history of the study of the judgement of the passage of time and present the pioneering works of Michael Flaherty and Elizabeth Larson. Knowledge of the past allows him to raise the unanswered questions and to discuss ways of answering them. However, the psychological processes underlying the passage of time judgement remain a mystery. The mechanisms change according to the different types of judgements of the passage of time. Natalia Martinelli (Université Clermont Auvergne, France) will therefore define the different types of judgement of the passage of time which depend on the length of the past period considered (5-10 last years, current activity) and on the nature of temporal judgment, i.e., retrospective or prospective. Natalia Martinelli will also present recent experimental data allowing her to propose the contextual self-duration theory of the passage-of-time, which she will present and discuss in relation to other theories of the passage of time (Martinelli & Droit-Volet, 2022; Droit-Volet & Martinelli, 2023). Ruth Odgen (Liverpool John Moores University, U.K.) will describe recent studies of objective measures of autonomic activity related to distortions of the passage of time that she collected during two real-world activities: waiting and a task of walking on ice bridge in a fear inducing virtual reality. Sylvie Droit-Volet (Université Clermont Auvergne, France) will present an original study that examined the development during childhood of the judgment of the passage of time and its relationship with the judgment of duration. The questions asked are: when are children able to make judgements about the passage of time similar to those of adults, and what is needed for these judgements: mastery of time movement metaphors, understanding of the relation between quantity and speed of time, awareness of subjective experience? The results showed two distinct developmental trajectories for the judgement of the passage of time and the judgment of duration. The judgement about the passage of time is thus initially rooted in emotional and sensory-motor experience. Judgment of the speed of the passage of time and judgment of duration are then combined mentally when children understand the logical link between speed and duration. The aim of this symposium is therefore to present the history, the theories, and recent data on the physiological bases of distortions of the passage of time and the development of this temporal judgement during childhood.
References
Droit-Volet, S., and Martinelli, N. (2023). The underpinnings of psychological feelings of time. In Performing Time: Synchrony and Temporal Flow in Music and Dance, ed. C. Wöllner and J. London (Oxford university Press), 67-76.
Gruber, R. P., Smith, R.P., & Block, R. A. (2018). The Illusory Flow and Passage of Time within Consciousness: A Multidisciplinary Analysis? Timing & Time Perception, 6, 125-153.
Martinelli, N., and Droit-Volet, S. (2022). What factors underlie our experience of the passage of time? Theoretical consequences. Psychological Research. 86, 522-530.
Wearden, J.H. (2015). Passage of time judgements. Consciousness and cognition, 38, 165-171.
Wearden, J., O’Donoghue, & Ogden, R, Montgomery, C. (2014). Subjective duration in the laboratory and the world outside. In V. Arstila & D. Lloyd (Eds.), Subjective time: The philosophy, psychology, and neuroscience of temporality. The MIT Press.
Keywords: Passage of time; History; Theory; Physiology; Development
Passage of time judgements: Looking backwards and forwards. John Wearden
The development of the judgement of the passage of time and its relationship with the judgement of duration. Sylvie Droit-Volet & Natalia Martinelli
Passage of time judgments: Definition, results and theory. Natalia Martinelli
The feeling of the passage of time against the time of the external clock. Florie Monier
The development of the judgement of the passage of time and its relationship with the judgement of duration
Sylvie Droit-Volet & Natalia Martinelli
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Symposium 4
Wednesday, October 4th
14:30 – 15:45
Sensory and Motor Time Processing in the Brain
Ben Harvey
Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands
Many behaviours in humans and animals require accurate perception of sensory event timing. We use this perception to plan motor actions to interact with the timing of these events, for example playing sports or music. This symposium aims to illustrate the processes in the brain that underlie this perception and behaviour, focussing on the duration and rate of sub-second events. We will showcase recent multidisciplinary studies asking how sensory, cognitive and motor systems in the brain represent and transform the timing of sensory and motor events. These studies investigate this question with a variety of experimental approaches: perceptual adaptation, innovative model-based analyses of ultra-high field functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data, and neurophysiological recordings from macaque monkeys. Together, they follow time processing from interval perception through its correlates in visual and cognitive systems and finally to the premotor cortex and basal ganglia.
First, Evi Hendrikx will use fMRI to show how early visual cortex monotonically increases its response amplitude with the duration and frequency of visual events at the retinotopic location of these events. Moving up the visual processing hierarchy, timing-tuned responses gradually emerge and separate the event’s timing from its visual position. Second, Masamichi Hayashi will use psychophysical adaptation to show distinct neural processing of filled and empty intervals. He will show that adaptation effects spread between visual hemifields, suggesting effects at timing-tuned stages where responses are independent of visual position. Third, Domenica Bueti will use fMRI of responses to visual space, event timing and numerosity to show how space and different quantities affect neural each other’s processing. Finally, Hugo Merchant will show how neural subpopulations in macaque premotor areas and the basal ganglia encode an event’s rate, sensory modality, and time and position in a sequence.
Together, these studies reveal the processes underlying sensory time perception and precisely-times action planning throughout the brain. With different approaches to characterise neural processing, they provide related multidisciplinary perspectives on the relationship between processing of event timing, space, number, sensory processing and action planning.
Keywords: Interval perception; visual cortex; beat induction; premotor cortex; fMRI.
Transition across human association cortices from early visual response dynamics to timing-tuned responses. Evi Hendrikx, Jacob M. Paul, Martijn van Ackooij, Nathan van der Stoep & Ben M. Harvey
Format dependency of interval-tuned neural representations in humans. Masamichi J. Hayashi & Kaoru Amano
How space, time and numerosity perceptual integration shapes brain response along the visual cortical hierarchy. Domenica Bueti, Gianfranco Fortunato & Valeria Centanino
Encoding rhythmic time and context in the primate cortico – basal ganglia circuit. Hugo Merchant & Oswaldo Pérez
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Symposium 5
Wednesday, October 4th
14:30 – 15:45
Timing of Music, Rhythm Perception and Body Movements
Ségolène Guérin
Institute of Neuroscience, UCLouvain, Brussels, Belgium
Music has accompanied human activities since immemorial times (e.g., tribal dances, military marches, galley rowing). Musical beats provide an anchor to time movements, a process referred to as sensorimotor synchronisation (i.e., temporal coordination between an action and predictable event; Repp, 2005). To predict when the next beat will occur with the purpose of informing movement planning, the brain needs to build a representation of musical-beat timing, also called internal meter (i.e., set of nested periodic beats). However, building this internal representation is far from straightforward, especially when the musical input lacks unambiguous periodic cues, as in many musical genres for dance. Understanding the biological roots of this high-level process has been a hot topic in timing research over the last decade (e.g., Chemin et al., 2014; Edalati et al., 2023; Flaten et al., 2022). While music influences motor outputs, possibly though audio–motor connections in the brain (Patel & Iversen, 2014), the reverse is also true and the motor system could modulate the way auditory information is processed (Nozaradan et al., 2016).
The objective of the proposed symposium is to explore how the timing of music is represented in the brain and the bidirectional relationship existing between this representation and motor behaviours. This symposium will bring together a multidisciplinary cohort of researchers (neuroscience, cognitive and neuropsychology) and include a variety of methods (intracranial and surface electroencephalography, behavioural measures, physiology recordings) and experimental settings (laboratory and ecological environments) to provide a complementary and comprehensive view of the studied processes. First, Dr Tomas Lenc will examine the neural representation of musical beats through intracortical recordings collected in humans while listening to auditory rhythms. The data will elucidate the role of different cortical areas in transforming the response to a rhythmic stimulus from faithful tracking of acoustic modulations towards an emphasised representation of a periodic beat. Dr Ségolène Guérin will present how the neural representation of musical beat and associated motor entrainment is shaped by the production of body movements. More precisely, the results will show that stepping to a rhythm following a certain metrical periodicity (i.e., frequency) enhances brain activity at that specific periodicity in subsequent listening, as captured with surface electroencephalography. Pr Yvonne Delevoye-Turrell will develop the concept of sonic energy (i.e., beat clarity) and the role it plays on sensorimotor synchronisation to musical rhythms during the production of timed actions. The specific effect of sonic energy and musical tempo on spontaneous pacing and affective experiences will be investigated in an ecological paradigm. Finally, Pr Wolfgang Tschacher will examine the effect of music on inter-personal behavioural and physiological synchrony during live concerts. The impact of aesthetic experience on the entrainment of bodily responses will be considered.
The body of work presented in this symposium will shed light on the processes underlying the inherent link between musical rhythm and body movements. We will also argue for the importance of an embodied perspective to time perception, as the way we experience and encode the timing of music cannot be isolated from body movements.
Keywords: music; rhythm perception; motor behaviours; brain activity; synchronisation
Intracerebral recordings reveal enhanced representation of musical beat across auditory and sensory-motor associative areas of the human brain. Tomas Lenc*, Jacques Jonas, Bruno Rossion, Sophie Colnat-Coulbois, and Sylvie Nozaradan
Effects of body movements on the neural representation of beat in complex rhythms. Ségolène M. R. Guérin, Emmanuel Coulon, Tomas Lenc, and Sylvie Nozaradan
Effects of sonic energy on spontaneous motor tempo during finger-tapping and a whole-body walking. Yvonne N. Delevoye-Turrell, Ségolène M. R. Guérin, Victor P. M. Brossard, and Maria-Francesca Gigliotti
Audience synchronies in live concerts illustrate the embodiment of music experience. Wolfgang Tschacher
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Symposium 6
Thursday, October 5th
9:00-10:15
Neural Tracking of Auditory Rhythm in Young Infants
Laurel Trainor
McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada. McMaster Institute for Music and the Mind, Hamilton, Canada
Background: Rhythms are ubiquitous in biological systems from circadian rhythms to heart beats, to locomotion, to speech and musical structure. In music and language, this temporal regularity provides a scaffold on which the rapid incoming sound events can be perceptually organized in real time. Rhythms are also powerful in that their regularities enable predictions as to when important future sound events are likely to occur, enabling efficient attentional allocation. Their importance is further evident in that major developmental disorders have been associated with timing and rhythm deficits. Infants are tasked with learning the particular language and musical systems of their culture. An important and necessary prerequisite for this would be an early ability to process auditory rhythms. Many studies show that the adult brain is adept at tracking auditory rhythms, that adults extract a regular pulse or beat even from complex rhythms that may have little energy at this frequency, and that adults interpret rhythms according to a metrical hierarchy in which (typically) two or three beats at one level are grouped to form an addition pulse at a subsequent metrical level. Here we explore features of neural rhythm tracking in infants from prematurity to 6 months of age.
Objectives: The objective of this symposium is to synthesize the latest findings on the development of neural rhythm tracking in infancy across the domains of music and language and from premature infants to 6-months-olds.
Scope: In the first two talks, the authors use EEG to examine neural tracking of rhythm in 6-month-old infants, with a focus on elucidating endogenous or top-down contributions to infants’ rhythm perception. In the first talk, the authors show that rather than infants’ brains simply encoding the periodicities in an incoming auditory rhythm (which they do), when presented with a metrically ambiguous rhythm that could be perceived as in either duple or triple meter, infants can be primed to perceive it in one meter or the other. In the second talk, the authors show that infants’ brains track meter frequencies that are perceived by adults, but which are not physically present in the rhythm. In the third talk, the authors present a series of studies showing that already by 30-34 weeks gestation, premature infants’ brains track both beat and meter frequencies. The fourth talk shows that infants also track the rhythms of the language they are exposed to. The authors show that prenatal experience finetunes newborns’ tracking of the low-frequency rhythms in the maternal language, while postnatal language experience affects neural tracking of higher frequencies.
Significance: This set of talks shows that as early as 30 weeks gestation the brain is already tracking periodicities in auditory streams, and that endogenous or top down contributions to rhythm perception are evident early in infancy. This demonstrates that rhythm is likely an important organizing principle for processing auditory information as the brain develops. These findings also enable the detection in infancy of poor neural rhythm tracking, which could be a biomarker of risk for certain developmental disorders.
keywords: neural tracking, infants, music, speech, meter
Interpretation of metrically ambiguous rhythms by the 6-month-old infant brain. Laurel J Trainor, Erica Flaten
Infants show enhanced neural responses to musical meter frequencies beyond low-level features. Tomas Lenc, Vargese Peter, Caitlin Hooper, Peter E. Keller, Denis Burnham, Sylvie Nozaradan
Neural correlates of rhythm processing in premature neonates. Sahar Moghimi, Mohammadreza Edalati, Fabrice Wallois, Ghida Ghostine, Laurel J. Trainor, Guy Kongolo
The role of prenatal experience with speech on early neural oscillations. Judit Gervain
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Symposium 7
Thursday, October 5th
9:00-10:15
Medial temporal lobe structures and their role in timing and time perception
Virginie van Wassenhove1, Benjamin R. Kanter2, James G. Heys3, Ignacio Polti2,4
1CEA DRF-Joliot, NeuroSpin, INSERM, Cognitive Neuroimaging Unit, Université Paris-Saclay, Gif/Yvette, France.
2Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience and Centre for Neural Computation, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway.
3Department of Neurobiology, University of Utah – School of Medicine, Utah, USA. 4Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany
An extensive amount of research in human and animal models have highlighted the critical role that medial temporal lobe (MTL) structures play in episodic memory and spatial navigation. By contrast, the contribution of the MTL to prospective and retrospective timing remains a mystery. Since the second edition of the Timing Research Forum in 2019, new studies have provided converging evidence suggesting that structures and computations underlying a representation of spatial order and distance may be shared with their temporal counterparts1,2,3,4,5,6,7. The objective of the symposium will be to gather an interdisciplinary group of researchers interested in the MTL, and the neural computations that underlie retrospective and prospective timing behavior, to highlight recent conceptual and mechanistic insights that will be of interest for a broad community of timing researchers. The line-up of speakers will present work in rodents and humans, using a diverse range of experimental tasks and neural recording techniques. The symposium will appeal to neuroscientists working in human and animal models, interested in retrospective and prospective timing, with a focus on the MTL and its interactions with other relevant areas such as the basal ganglia, neocortex and cerebellum. The topics to be covered include: 1) how event structure shapes the dynamics of neural activity in rodent lateral entorhinal cortex (EC), 2) the role of circuit dynamics in rodent medial EC for context-dependent timing behavior, 3) the extent to which hippocampal and EC grid-cell-like activity contribute to human sensorimotor timing, and 4) the role of rhythmic brain activity in human retrospective timing.
1. Montchal, M.E., Reagh, Z.M. & Yassa, M.A. (2019). Precise temporal memories are supported by the lateral entorhinal cortex in humans. Nat. Neurosci. 22, 284–288.
2. Thavabalasingam, S., O’Neil, E. B., Tay, J., Nestor, A. & Lee, A. C. H. (2019). Evidence for the incorporation of temporal duration information in human hippocampal long-term memory sequence representations. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 116, 6407–6414
3. Gauthier, B., Prabhu, P., Kotegar, K. A. & van Wassenhove, V. (2020). Hippocampal contribution to ordinal psychological time in the human brain. J. Cogn. Neurosci. 32, 2071–2086.
4. Heys, J.G., Wu, Z., Allegra Mascaro, A.L. & Dombeck, D.A. (2020). Inactivation of the medial entorhinal cortex selectively disrupts learning of interval timing. Cell Rep. 32, 108163.
5. Issa, J. B., Tocker, G., Hasselmo, M. E., Heys, J. G. & Dombeck, D. A. (2020). Navigating through time: a spatial navigation perspective on how the brain may encode time. Annu. Rev. Neurosci.
6. Polti, I., Nau, M., Kaplan, R., van Wassenhove, V. & Doeller, C.F. (2022). Rapid encoding of task regularities in the human hippocampus guides sensorimotor timing. eLife. 11:e79027
7. Tsao, A., Yousefzadeh, S.A., Meck, W.H., Moser M.B, Moser E.I. (2022). The neural bases for timing of durations. Nat. Rev. Neurosci. 23, 646–665.
Keywords: medial temporal lobe, retrospective timing, prospective timing, animal models
Episodic time. Virginie van Wassenhove
Event structure sculpts lateral entorhinal dynamics. Benjamin R. Kanter
The role of circuit dynamics in MEC for flexible, context-dependent interval timing behavior. James G. Heys
Encoding of timing task regularities in the human hippocampal-entorhinal system. Ignacio Polti
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Symposium 8
Thursday, October 5th
10:45 – 12:00
Timing in Visual Circuits
Chair: Martin Wiener1*
1George Mason University, Virginia, USA
Is time an amodal or modal-specific process? Despite early assumptions that time is an extracted, or higher-order feature of perception, more recent work over the past two decades has demonstrated that timing may be instantiated within sensory modality circuits. A primary location for many of these studies is the visual system, where duration sensitive responses have been demonstrated (Shuler & Bear, 2006). Further, visual stimulus features have been observed to shift perceived duration. These findings suggest that visual circuits mediate or construct perceived time. In this symposium, we will provide an overview of timing effects across the visual hierarchy. The work presented in this symposium will therefore provide an overview of time dilation and contraction effects on specific visual features, introduce further distortions, and present additional findings related to eye movements as a window into the localization of timing effects within the visual system. Further presentations will present model and neurophysiological data from humans and animals relating to neuronal firing rates and duration-tuning effects. Altogether, the presentations in this symposium will present timing across the visual hierarchy, informing how time can be progressively “built” from visual processes.
Keywords: Visual Processing, Hierarchical Processing, Psychophysics, Neurophysiology
Memorability shapes perceived time (and vice versa). Martin Wiener*, Alex Ma, Ayana Cameron
Learning cued-interval timing in visual cortex and the role of acetylcholine. Marshall G Hussain Shuler
Where does time go when we blink: lessons from continuous estimation and reproduction tasks. Ayelet N. Landau and Coral Sheffi
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Symposium 9
Thursday, October 5th
14:30 – 15:45
The sense of time in altered states of consciousness
Marc Wittmann
Institute for Frontier Areas of Psychology and Mental Health, Freiburg, Germany
States of consciousness vary constantly as fluctuations between tiredness and focused attention, between relaxation and arousal. Based on these fluctuations during waking the sense of time and self vary considerably. Subjective time varies more strongly in altered states of consciousness (ASC), as modulations induced through specific methods and behaviors such as during meditation or hypnosis, through intake of drugs such as alcohol or psychedelics, when listening to music or in “flow” states experienced during rock climbing or when playing virtual-reality games. ASC can also appear spontaneously or related to unforeseen events such as during accidents, as spiritual states in nature, or as feeling of awe when we experience something wonderful or rather frightening. Peak experiences during ASC are reported to consist of ‘timeless’ states or, to the contrary, as extreme dilation of duration or slowing down of time passage (Wittmann 2018).
These phenomena have been largely ignored by scientists because conventional scientific theories could not furnish any explanation. Over the recent years, however, an upsurge in studies on ASC, especially so concerning meditative states and effects of controlled intake of psychedelics has changed the field. In our symposium we focus on changes in the sense of time as a major feature of reports during and after ASC across different induction methods.
Marc Wittmann presents experimental results of how the sense of body boundaries as well of time diminish in (1) experienced meditators during meditation and for (2) individuals during floatation-REST, where one effortlessly floats in a dark, soundproof tank filled with water that is supersaturated with Epsom salt. Rui Miguel Costa will show empirical evidence of how different facets of subjective time change while having sex and during the intake of alcohol, wine and port wine. Tal Dotan Ben-Soussan presents work on modulations in subjective time and self after a specific movement meditation technique, Quadrato Motor Training. Sylvie Droit-Volet presents a series of computerized experiments inducing the feeling of awe and as a consequence the sense of time. An understanding of altered states of consciousness, in essence the change in self- and time consciousness, is essential for consciousness research as it opens up an avenue towards an answer of how phenomenal consciousness is related to the physiology of the body and brain.
Wittmann, M. (2018). Altered states of consciousness: Experiences out of time and self. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Keywords: altered states of consciousness, meditation, floatation-REST, alcohol, sex, awe
Changes in subjective time and body boundaries during meditation and floatation-REST. Marc Wittmann, Damisela Linares Gutiérrez, Helena Hruby
The passage of time with sex and wine. Rui Miguel Costa, Matilde Barata, Ana Rolo Santos, Madalena Wiborg
Sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll: the effects of Quadrato Motor Training on EEG, time production and self. Tal Dotan Ben-Soussan, Patrizio Paoletti
Awe, duration and time perception. Sylvie Droit-Volet, Michaël Dambrun, Florie Monier
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Symposium 10
Thursday, October 5th
14:30 – 15:45
Time processing in neurological and psychiatric disorders: the cerebellum as a key player? A translational approach
Anne Giersch1,2,3, Philippe Isope4,5, Megan Carey6, Kai Vogeley7,8
1University of Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France.
2INSERM u1114, Strasbourg, France.
3Pole of Psychiatry, University Hospital of Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France.
4Université de Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France.
5Institut des Neurosciences Cellulaires et Intégratives, CNRS, Strasbourg, France.
6Champalimaud Neuroscience Program, Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown, Lisbon, Portugal.
7Department of Psychiatry, University Hospital Cologne, Cologne, Germany.
8Cognitive Neuroscience – Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM3), Research Center Juelich, Juelich, Germany
Chairpersons: Anne Giersch, Philippe Isope
Timing disorders are not part of the diagnosis criteria in psychiatry, but have been described in mental disorders since a century, often in relation with disorders of the sense of self. Our bodily self is the point of origin of our perceptions and actions, allowing us to experience ourselves in direct and continuous contact with our life world. A loss of contact with the external world is reported by patients with psychosis, with a disruption of time continuity in patients with schizophrenia, and a dissociation between internal and external time in patients with depression and bipolar disorders. However, a difficulty in psychiatry is to relate neurobiological, cognitive processes. We will summarize recent work on time experience in various groups of participants and across species and will make suggestions for translational approaches that may lead to new pathophysiological as well as therapeutic avenues.
Timing disorders in psychiatry had been almost forgotten, and Kai Vogeley and his team has pioneered in renewing the field by re-initiating phenomenological studies. He will describe what we know from the subjective experience of patients, and how timing disorders can be approached experimentally.
Anne Giersch will describe behavioural, EEG (eletroencephalography) and TMS (transcranial magnetic stimulation) results with a variable foreperiod task in patients with schizophrenia and neurotypicals, with results suggesting a link between the implicit ability to generate expectations in time and the sense of self, at both sensory and motor levels.
We will further show how studies in animal models complement and extend experiences in humans in order to understand how dysfunctional cognitive and neural processes lead to disturbed time experience. Time processing in the brain is known to rely on a widely distributed network, involving many different brain areas, such as e.g. frontal cortex, supplementary motor area, parietal cortex, striatum, substantia nigra and the cerebellum. Noticeably, many of these pathways, which are involved in explicit, implicit, sensory or motor timing, are similar in humans and in animals. For example, interval timing estimation involves cerebello-thalamo-prefrontal communication in both species. Alterations in this pathway is observed in schizophrenia and is accompanied by similar timing disorders in rodents and humans [1]. Moreover, in both species non-invasive cerebellar stimulation alleviates such disorders. Therefore, we will argue that translational research may orient and facilitate the discovery of new therapeutics. Research on animal presented in this symposium is especially pertinent within the context of the timing difficulties in schizophrenia.
Megan Carey unraveled the spatial and temporal component of locomotor adaptation in normal and pathological conditions in mice [2]. Her work on learning processes is highly conserved across vertebrates.
Philippe Isope studied how cerebellar network integrate temporal information at a synaptic level and recently demonstrated that internals models controlling adaptive locomotion are encoded in the cerebellar cortex [3]. He will describe a new implicit timing task in rodent that reproduces the foreperiod task used by Anne Giersch in humans.
[1] Parker, KL et al. (2017). Molecular Psychiatry. 22(5): 647–655.
[2] Darmohray DM et al. (2019) Neuron. 102(1):217-231
[3] Spaeth L et al. (2022) Nat Commun. 13(1):580
Keywords: time prediction, time passage, variable foreperiod, psychosis, cerebellum
Phenomenology of disturbed time experience in psychopathology. Kai Vogeley*, David Vogel, Mathis Jording, Christine Falter-Wagner, Christian Kupke
Waiting at the level of seconds and interference at the level of millisecond. E. Joos, C. Scherer, F. Foerster, Anne Giersch*
Cerebellar mechanisms for learned timing revealed by locomotor learning in mice. Dana Darmohray, Jovin Jacobs, Hugo G. Marques, N. Tatiana Silva, Megan R. Carey*
Processing of implicit timing in the cerebello-prefrontal pathway in mice. Federica Lareno-Faccini, Pierre Le Cabec, Ludovic Spaeth, Dominique Ciocca, Anne Giersch and Philippe Isope*
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Symposium 11
Friday, October 6th
9:00 – 10:15
The anticipation of events in time: contrasting theories of probabilistic representations and associative learning
Sander Los, Wouter Kruijne, Martijn Meeter, Josh Salet, Matthias Grabenhorst, Georgios Michalareas, Sophie Herbst
1Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, Netherlands. 2University of Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands. 3Ernst Strüngmann Institute for Neuroscience in Cooperation with Max Planck Society, Frankfurt, Germany. 4Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics, Frankfurt, Germany. 5Cognitive Neuroimaging Unit, INSERM, CEA, CNRS, Université Paris-Saclay, NeuroSpin center, Gif sur Yvette, France
The sensory environment is often dynamic, yet it features characteristic temporal relationships between events. For example, thunder follows lightning with a certain range of delays, or, in speech, humans answer questions after a short, yet flexible, pause for thought. By extracting and internalizing such time spans, we can form temporal predictions which allow us to anticipate the onsets of future events and benefit our interaction with the dynamic environment. In cognitive neuroscience, temporal predictions are studied using the so-called foreperiod paradigm, in which two sensory stimuli are separated by an interval, the foreperiod. Decades of research have shown that animals and human participants extract foreperiod durations and form temporal predictions, leading to shorter reaction times and enhanced sensory processing. Still, the cognitive and neural principles underlying the formation of such predictions from temporal information are not well understood.
In this symposium, we will discuss several, and to some extent conflicting models of how humans form temporal predictions. The first presentation argues for a neurocognitive process model (multiple trace theory, MTP) in which temporal preparation results from the replay of memory traces on each trial, and presents recent behavioral evidence. The second presentation focuses on neurophysiological markers in preparation tasks, and relates these to the computational steps in MTP. The third presentation takes a different perspective and argues that temporal predictions are based on the probability density function of the foreperiods, drawing from reaction times and magnetoencephalography data. The fourth presentation discusses in which ways human learning of temporal statistics follows the principles of ideal Bayesian learning of statistical distributions.
Bringing together these different theories and neurocognitive models in one symposium will allow to clarify common assumptions and diverging aspects, and jointly define open research questions to achieve clarity about the mechanisms of implicit timing in prediction.
Keywords: implicit timing, temporal prediction, anticipation, probabilistic learning, associative learning
Learning when to be ready: the formation and retrieval of temporal associations. Sander Los, Martijn Meeter, Josh Salet, and Wouter Kruijne
Dissecting temporal preparation: neurophysiological and computational evidence for its underlying cognitive steps. Wouter Kruijne, Martijn Meeter, Josh Salet, and Sander Los
Neural correlates of temporal statistics. Matthias Grabenhorst, Georgios Michalareas
Do humans form temporal predictions through ideal Bayesian learning? Sophie K. Herbst
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Symposium 12
Friday, October 6th
9:00 – 10:15
Temporal and Multisensory Processing in Virtual Reality
Johanna Bogon1, Julian Högerl1, Martin Kocur1, Christian Wolff1, Niels Henze1, Martin Riemer2
1University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany.
2Technical University Berlin, Berlin, Germany
In recent years, technical developments in virtual reality (VR) applications have been immensely fruitful for the investigation of human time perception, and first frameworks supporting studies in the field have been published (e.g., Landeck et al., 2020). The method VR enables the use of realistic stimuli, embedded within an immersive, naturalistic context, while maintaining a high level of experimental control over the presented stimuli. VR allows to manipulate external Zeitgeber (e.g., speed of environmental changes) and to control for environmental factors that are known to influence subjective time flow (e.g., spatial size and visual appearance of room interiors).
In this symposium, we will present a selection of VR studies on temporal processing and the timing of multisensory events. Along with the presentation of empirical results, we will provide a general overview of the advantages and limitations of VR techniques in the context of timing research (talk 1 by Michael Barnett-Cowan) and in the context of multisensory processing (talk 2 by Max Di Luca), address the theoretical implications and implicit assumptions inherent in the methodology itself (talk 3 by Martin Riemer), and discuss the role of embodiment of virtual avatars and body-dissociative states that can be induced by VR (talk 4 by Johanna Bogon).
References:
Landeck, M., Unruh, F., Lugrin, J.L., Latoschik, M.E., 2020. Metachron: A framework for time perception research in VR, in: Proceedings of the 26th ACM Symposium on Virtual Reality Software and Technology, ACM. pp. 1–3. doi:10.1145/3385956.3422111.
Keywords: Virtual reality; temporal processing; multisensory processing
Virtual reality as a tool for unraveling the complexities of timing and time perception in multisensory processing. Michael Barnett-Cowan
Limits of multisensory simultaneity in virtual reality. Massimiliano (Max) Di Luca
Virtual reality changes expectations about the duration of physical processes, but not the sense of time. Johanna Bogon, Julian Högerl, Martin Kocur, Christian Wolff, Niels Henze & Martin Riemer*
Time perception during out-of-body-experiences in virtual reality. Martin Riemer, Polina Ugnivenko, Martin Kocur, Niels Henze, Johanna Bogon*
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Symposium 13
Friday, October 6th
10:45 – 12:00
Representational Formats of Time: An overview of evidence for temporal mirroring & temporal tagging
Ishan Singhal
Department of Cognitive Science, IIT Kanpur, Kanpur, India
How do mental representations account for time? Is it the case that mental representations represent time by themselves possessing temporal properties (temporal mirroring) or by atemporal markers/tags (temporal tagging)? This question has been asked for the last five decades and more, in neuroscience, philosophy and psychology. The aim of the symposium is to offer nuances, reviews and support for both of these representation formats (time-tagging and time-mirroring).
The symposium will feature three talks that discuss the promise of temporal tagging and temporal mirroring hypotheses for explaining time perception, temporal resolution and temporal ordering of experiences.
Presentations within the symposium will discuss how either of these representation formats can be unified (Arstila), or how temporal mirroring can allow combining the study of timing and time perception (Singhal). Similarly, the symposium will also cover implications of actions on perceived time, under the assumption that perceived duration is akin to other visual sensory features (Ayhan). For either of the representation formats of time, we will discuss the ways in which it can better the understanding of perceived time.
The symposium will detail this fundamental open question in time perception research, i.e. what is the representational format of a time-keeper that allows time perception. And whether these formats can co-exist for different processes and time scales. Over the last two decades, several debates have arisen in time perception where models of time are parsed as being ‘central or peripheral’, ‘dedicated or intrinsic’, locked to ‘event time or brain time’ and ‘judgment or perception’. In detailing the representational formats of time, we aim to highlight these key existing debates to show how they can be approached for an investigation. Moreover, while the search for neural mechanisms for time perception continues, an understanding of how time is represented may offer constraints in narrowing down both neural signatures and brain areas responsible for perceived time. Finally, they can show a way in which ‘time’ can be parsimoniously studied across timing and time perception literature. The ideal outcome of this symposium is to offer a ground for discussion about how time is represented, and how knowing its representational format can form a fundamental cornerstone in the science of time perception.
Keywords: Temporal representations, temporal mirroring, temporal tagging
Temporal order in two mental timelines. Valtteri Arstila
Time as its own Representation. Ishan Singhal
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Symposium 14
Friday, October 6th
14:30 – 15:45
A multidisciplinary approach for the modulation of the human subjective time experience
Argiro Vatakis1, Knut Drewing2, Heiko Hamann3, Jean Botev4, Pieter Simoens5, Yara Khaluf6
1Multisensory and Temporal Processing Laboratory (MultiTimeLab), Department of Psychology, Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences, Athens, Greece. 2HapLab, Giessen University, Giessen, Germany. 3University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany. 4University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg, Belgium. 5IDLab, Ghent University,, Ghent, Belgium. 6Information Technology group, Wageningen University & Research, Wageningen, Netherlands
Our ability to estimate time is critical in every aspect of our life, from everyday tasks like coordinating our limbs to walk safely, to uniquely human activities like planning our children’s future. Subjective time, however, is not isomorphic to physical duration and can be distorted by a wide variety of factors. Furthermore, the subjective feeling of time expanding is often tied with major phenomenological and perceptual side effects that may yield a beneficial impact on our behavior, allowing us to avoid fatal or catastrophic events, deal with life-threating situations, and modify our actions by directing our attention to the issues most relevant for our survival. Although such phenomenological distortions are yet to be fully understood and predicted by current timing models, basic research on timing has produced a wealth of knowledge on timing modulations and their behavioral effects. ChronoPilot is a multidisciplinary, European-funded effort aiming to develop a prototype technology to extend or compress human subjective time adaptively. This will be implemented through mixed reality technologies and collaborative settings (humans, humans and robots), where people will be presented with visual, auditory, and haptic stimulation patterns that directly or indirectly influence their subjective time. Further improving our understanding and models of timing and the complementing technological means to modulate time, we believe will have a profound impact on both technology and society. This symposium aims to inform the timing community of the progress of the ChronoPilot effort by bringing together researchers from different disciplines on the common effort of modulating human subjecting time.
Extending basic research findings on timing to more complex, ecologically valid settings. Eirini Balta, Andreas Psarrakis, and Argiro Vatakis
Haptic wearables in the modulation of subjective time. Knut Drewing, Müge Cavdan, and Bora Celebi
Introducing Time Perception as a Dimension in Human-Robot Interaction. Julian Kaduk, Heiko Hamann
Physiological Data, Fatigue, Task Performance, and Timing. Steven Picard, Jean Botev, and Sahar Niknam
Computational modelling of time perception predictors and modulators. Pieter Simoens, Yara Khaluf
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Symposium 15
Friday, October 6th
14:30 – 15:45
Know thyself: self-monitoring of temporal behavior
Tadeusz Kononowicz1, Fuat Balci2, Ljubica Jovanovic3, Pascal Mamassian3
1Institute of Psychology, Polish Academy of Science, Warsaw, Poland.
2University of Manitoba, Manitoba, Canada.
3Laboratoire des Systèmes Perceptifs, École Normale Supérieure, Paris, France
The field of timing and time perception has been concerned with time keeping abilities of different organisms. However, the extent to which the time-keeping mechanisms can be monitored and evaluated is a question that has rarely been tackled. This symposium will address recent developments in self-monitoring and evaluating temporal behavior.
Humans and other animals evaluate their behavior without explicit feedback, reporting their confidence and errors. While there has been rapid progress in understanding these metacognitive abilities in externally driven perceptual decisions, we do not know how metacognition and monitoring operate in temporal domain. Numerous studies found that humans and other animals can keep track of time fairly accurately on average but with associated uncertainty. Individuals can integrate associated levels of uncertainty in their decisions in near optimal fashion, suggesting possibility of monitoring of temporal behavior. More recent findings demonstrate that errors in temporal behavior can be explicitly reported with their associated confidence, pointing to levels of awareness of time-keeping mechanisms, and its informational richness.
Ljubica Jovanovic will show how humans recalibrate metacognitive judgements for different levels of temporal uncertainty. Fuat Balci will present data from humans and mice, dissecting metric error monitoring at different levels. Tadeusz Kononowicz will show comparative work from rats and humans with insights on the neural bases underlying temporal error monitoring.
Keywords: Temporal error monitoring, confidence, metacognition, interval timing
Sensitivity of confidence judgments across different temporal intervals. Ljubica Jovanovic* & Pascal Mamassian
Metric error monitoring. Fuat Balci
Temporal error monitoring in rats and humans. Tadeusz W. Kononowicz
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TRF3 