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Memory for Stimulus Duration Is Not Bound to Spatial Information
Wouter Kruijne1, Christian N L Olivers2, Hedderik van Rijn1
1Rijksuniversiteit Groningen.
Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience
|September 8, 2021
Summary
The human brain initially binds time with location during perception. However, working memory processing for comparison detaches temporal information from spatial representations, suggesting a format shift.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Psychology
- Neuroscience
Background:
- Intrinsic clock theories propose time is perceived like other stimulus features.
- Temporal information is thought to be bound with features like location.
- The role of spatial representation in temporal working memory is unclear.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if temporal information in working memory remains linked to its original spatial location.
- To examine neural signatures of temporal information maintenance and comparison.
- To test the hypothesis of a stimulus-independent format for temporal information.
Main Methods:
- Electroencephalography (EEG) was used to record brain activity.
- Participants timed stimuli at lateral positions, followed by central comparison stimuli.
- Analysis included contralateral delay activity, lateralized alpha suppression, and decoding.
Main Results:
- Spatial representation was involved during the perception of temporal information.
- Neural measures indicated that temporal information became dissociated from spatial location during comparison.
- Behavioral and neural data supported a shift away from spatial coding.
Conclusions:
- Initial perception of temporal information involves intrinsic, spatially-bound computations.
- Temporal information is translated into a stimulus-independent format for working memory comparison.
- This suggests a flexible representation of temporal information for cognitive tasks.
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