The Remapping of Time by Active Tool-Use.

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Perception Psychology
• Human Motor Control

Background:

• Space perception is action-based, with dynamic boundaries between near/reachable and far/unreachable zones.
• Tool use has been shown to alter spatial representations, demonstrating their plasticity.
• The influence of action and tool use on time perception remains largely unexplored.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate whether time perception is also governed by action-driven multiple representations.
• To determine if tool use can modulate these temporal representations.
• To examine the role of action and effector in time perception modulation.

Main Methods:

• Healthy participants completed a time bisection task in near and far space.
• Tasks were performed before and after active tool-use training (right hand).
• Control conditions included passive tool training, left-hand active training, and active hand training without a tool.

Main Results:

• Before training, time perception was spatially dependent, dissociating between near and far space.
• Active tool-use training eliminated this dissociation, with temporal stimuli perceived as nearer.
• This time remapping effect was absent in passive training, left-hand training, and tool-less hand training conditions.

Conclusions:

• Time processing relies on action-driven multiple representations, similar to space perception.
• Active tool use dynamically remapped temporal representations, demonstrating their plasticity.
• The observed time remapping is dependent on the action performed and the effector used.