Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Related Concept Videos

Biological Clocks and Seasonal Responses

Biological Clocks and Seasonal Responses

The circadian—or biological—clock is an intrinsic, timekeeping, molecular mechanism that allows plants to coordinate physiological activities over 24-hour cycles called circadian rhythms. Photoperiodism is a collective term for the biological responses of plants to variations in the relative lengths of dark and light periods. The period of light-exposure is called the photoperiod.

Timing and Consequences on Behavior

Timing and Consequences on Behavior

In operant conditioning, the timing of reinforcement is crucial. For animals like rats and cats, immediate reinforcement (within a few seconds) is much more effective than delayed reinforcement. For example, a food reward for a rat needs to follow within 30 seconds of pressing a bar to be effective.
Humans, however, can respond to delayed reinforcers. We often make decisions between immediate small rewards and delayed larger rewards. This ability to delay gratification is a significant factor...

Factors Affecting Perception

Factors Affecting Perception

Perception is influenced by perceptual set, context, motivation, and emotion. Perceptual set, or perceptual expectancy, refers to the tendency to perceive things in a particular way, influenced by previous experiences and expectations. This phenomenon affects the interpretation of stimuli, creating a set of mental tendencies and assumptions that impact sensory perceptions of sound, taste, touch, and sight.
An illustrative example of a perceptual set is the scenario where an airline pilot told...

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by

Same author

Neural Mechanisms of Self-Generated Action Sequences.

eNeuro·2026

Same author

Neural adaptation to climate change: mechanisms, limits and opportunities.

Nature reviews. Neuroscience·2026

Same author

Cognitive mechanisms underlying sense of agency: Meta-analytic reviews of behavioral and neuroimaging studies.

Psychological bulletin·2025

Same author

Interoception vs. Exteroception: Cardiac interoception competes with tactile perception, yet also facilitates self-relevance encoding.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·2025

Same author

Electrical Spinal Imaging: A noninvasive, high-resolution approach that enables electrophysiological mapping of the human spinal cord.

PLoS biology·2025

Same author

Voluntary action as problem-solving: an functional magnetic resonance imaging study.

Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991)·2025

Same journal

Molecular links between reelin downregulation, topoisomerase IIβ alterations, and proteins involved in Alzheimer pathology in human SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cell line.

Experimental brain research·2026

Same journal

Motor cortex excitability during spine shape-judgment in adolescent idiopathic scoliosis: a TMS motor evoked potential study.

Experimental brain research·2026

Same journal

Trajectory dynamics and endpoint accuracy in targeted ballistic contractions.

Experimental brain research·2026

Same journal

Exploring Sevoflurane promotes hippocampal neuron mitophagy in elderly postoperative cognitive dysfunction by HSP90AA1 based on network pharmacology.

Experimental brain research·2026

Same journal

Loading modulates monosynaptic transmission from spindle primary afferents to motoneurons in humans.

Experimental brain research·2026

Same journal

Energy-dependent cortical injury thresholds in high-frequency transcortical electrical stimulation: a biophysical study in a rat model.

Experimental brain research·2026

See all related articles

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 22, 2026

Eye Movements in Visual Duration Perception: Disentangling Stimulus from Time in Predecisional Processes

Eye Movements in Visual Duration Perception: Disentangling Stimulus from Time in Predecisional Processes

Published on: January 19, 2024

How voluntary actions modulate time perception.

Dorit Wenke¹, Patrick Haggard

¹Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London, UK. wenke@cbs.mpg.de

Experimental Brain Research

|May 28, 2009

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Voluntary actions slow down the internal clock, causing intentional binding. This research clarifies how our sense of agency links actions to their perceived effects.

More Related Videos

Measuring Attention and Visual Processing Speed by Model-based Analysis of Temporal-order Judgments

Measuring Attention and Visual Processing Speed by Model-based Analysis of Temporal-order Judgments

Published on: January 23, 2017

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Jun 22, 2026

Eye Movements in Visual Duration Perception: Disentangling Stimulus from Time in Predecisional Processes

Eye Movements in Visual Duration Perception: Disentangling Stimulus from Time in Predecisional Processes

Published on: January 19, 2024

Measuring Attention and Visual Processing Speed by Model-based Analysis of Temporal-order Judgments

Measuring Attention and Visual Processing Speed by Model-based Analysis of Temporal-order Judgments

Published on: January 23, 2017

Area of Science:

Cognitive Neuroscience
Psychology of Perception
Human Motor Control

Background:

Time perception distortions are explained by internal clock pacing or lag-adaptation.
Intentional binding, the subjective shortening of action-effect intervals, is a key temporal illusion.

Purpose of the Study:

To directly compare internal clock and lag-adaptation theories of intentional binding.
To investigate the neural mechanisms underlying the sense of agency.

Main Methods:

Participants performed voluntary or passive movements followed by cutaneous stimuli.
Temporal discrimination tasks assessed simultaneity judgments and action-tone interval perception.
A control experiment excluded auditory feedback as a confounding factor.

Main Results:

Temporal discrimination was impaired after voluntary movements compared to passive movements.
This impairment occurred early in the action-tone interval.
Active movements without auditory feedback did not cause impairment.

Conclusions:

Voluntary actions transiently slow down an internal clock during the action-effect interval.
This internal clock slowing explains intentional binding.
Findings link the effects of voluntary actions to the self and sense of agency.