Exploring the reciprocal modulation of time and space in dancers and non-dancers

We explored whether time and space representations modulate each other in subjects that are trained to integrate time and space dimensions, i.e., professional dancers. A group of dancers, and one of non-dancers, underwent two different tasks employing identical stimuli. A first static central line could last one of three possible durations and could have one of three possible lengths. A second growing line appeared from the left or right of the screen and grew up toward the opposite direction at constant velocity. In the Spatial task, subjects encoded the length of the static line and stopped the growing line when it had reached half the length of the static one, regardless of time travel. In the Temporal task, subjects encoded the duration of the static line and stopped the growing line when it had lasted half the duration of the static one, regardless of space traveled. Dancers, differently from non-dancers, anticipated time in the Temporal task. However, both dancers and non-dancers were biased by the stimulus length when performing the Temporal task, while they were not biased by the stimulus duration when performing the Spatial task. Concluding, this study underlines the plasticity of time dimension that can be influenced by spatial information and by sensorimotor training for the synchronization in space and time.