Related Experiment Video
Updated: Mar 2, 2026
Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation for Investigating Causal Brain-behavioral Relationships and their Time Course
Published on: July 18, 2014
Probing the timing network: A continuous theta burst stimulation study of temporal categorization
Juan Carlos Méndez1, Lorenzo Rocchi2, Marjan Jahanshahi3
1Departamento de Neurobiología Conductual y Cognitiva, Instituto de Neurobiología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Campus Juriquilla, Querétaro, Mexico; Sobell Department of Motor Neuroscience and Movement Disorders, UCL Institute of Neurology, London, United Kingdom.
Investigating time perception, this study found that disrupting the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), supplementary motor area (SMA), and cerebellum specifically impacts the perception of millisecond intervals, not seconds.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Neuroscience of Time Perception
- Human Brain Function
Background:
- Distinct neural mechanisms are hypothesized for millisecond versus second-range time perception.
- The precise neural boundaries and overlapping or separate brain regions involved remain unclear.
- Investigating the role of specific prefrontal and cerebellar regions in temporal processing is crucial.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the causal role of the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), right supplementary motor area (SMA), and cerebellum in time perception.
- To determine if these regions are differentially involved in processing millisecond versus second-range time intervals.
- To examine the effects of disrupting these areas on temporal categorization sensitivity and accuracy.
Main Methods:
- Utilized continuous Theta Burst Stimulation (cTBS), a form of transcranial magnetic stimulation, to temporarily inhibit targeted brain regions (right dlPFC, SMA, cerebellum) in healthy volunteers.
- A control condition involved stimulating the primary somatosensory cortex (S1).
- Participants performed temporal categorization tasks (hundreds and thousands of milliseconds) and a pitch categorization control task before and after stimulation, assessing Relative Threshold and Constant Error.
Main Results:
- Disrupting the dlPFC, SMA, and cerebellum with cTBS significantly affected the Relative Threshold (sensitivity) for categorizing hundreds of milliseconds intervals.
- Neither the Constant Error (accuracy) nor the categorization of thousands of milliseconds intervals or pitch was affected by the stimulation.
- These findings indicate a specific role for the fronto-cerebellar circuit in processing shorter, millisecond-range temporal durations.
Conclusions:
- The fronto-cerebellar network is critically involved in the precise estimation of time intervals in the hundreds of milliseconds range.
- Time perception mechanisms may exhibit distinct neural substrates for different temporal scales (milliseconds vs. seconds).
- This study provides causal evidence linking specific brain regions to sub-second time interval processing.
