fMRI studies of temporal attention: allocating attention within, or towards, time

Attention is distributed in time as well as space. Moreover, attention can be actively directed both within, and towards, time. This review article summarises behavioural and neuroanatomical correlates of temporal aspects of attention. Orienting attention to particular moments in time, or selectively attending to temporal rather than non-temporal stimulus features, improves behavioural measures of performance. These effects are accompanied by specific increases in activity of functionally specialised, and anatomically discrete, brain regions. Left parietal cortex is associated with orienting attention to specific moments in time. Pre-supplementary motor area (SMA) is associated with selectively attending to, and estimating, time. Frontal operculum is associated with all of these processes as well as being activated when attentional resources are limited by time itself. The frontal operculum therefore plays a pivotal role in the multi-faceted interaction between time and attention.