Brain activity during non-automatic motor production of discrete multi-second intervals

It has been suggested that the different patterns of brain activity observed during paced finger tapping and non-movement related timing tasks, with medial premotor cortex (supplementary motor cortex, pre and proper) and ipsilateral cerebellum dominating the former, and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) the latter, might be related to differing motor demands. Since paced finger tapping often consists of automatic movement (requiring little overt attention), while non-motor timing is attentionally modulated, the difference could also be related to attentional processing. Here, we observed timing related activity in both medial premotor cortex and DLPFC, with non-timing related activity in other areas, including ipsilateral cerebellum, when subjects performed non-automatic motor timing. This result shows that, in time measurement, medial premotor activation is not specific to automatic movement, and DLPFC activity is not specific to non-motor tasks.