0000000000105921
AUTHOR
Barbara Magnani
The role of Posterior Parietal Cortex in spatial representation of time: a TMS study.
1. Introduction. The existence of a spatial representation of time, where temporal intervals are represented on a mental temporal line (MTL), oriented in ascending order from left to right, was demonstrated manipulating spatial attention by means of Prismatic Adaptation (PA). In young healthy subjects, prisms adaptation inducing a rightward shift of spatialattention produced an overestimation of time intervals, whereas prisms adaptation inducing a leftward shift of spatialattention produced an underestimation of time intervals [4]. The aimof the present study was to investigate the neural basis mediating the effects of PA on spatial time representation. PosteriorParietalCortex (PPC) is the …
Prismatic lenses shift time perception
Previous studies have demonstrated the involvement of spatial codes in the representation of time and numbers. We took advantage of a well-known spatial modulation (prismatic adaptation) to test the hypothesis that the representation of time is spatially oriented from left to right, with smaller time intervals being represented to the left of larger time intervals. Healthy subjects performed a time-reproduction task and a time-bisection task, before and after leftward and rightward prismatic adaptation. Results showed that prismatic adaptation inducing a rightward orientation of spatial attention produced an overestimation of time intervals, whereas prismatic adaptation inducing a leftward…
Prismatic adaptation effects on spatial representation of time in neglect patients
Abstract Processing of temporal information may require the use of spatial attention to represent time along a mental time line. We used prismatic adaptation (PA) to explore the contribution of spatial attention to the spatial representation of time in right brain damaged patients with and without neglect of left space and in age-matched healthy controls. Right brain damaged patients presented time underestimation deficits, that were significantly greater in patients with neglect than in patients without neglect. PA inducing leftward attentional deviation reduced time underestimation deficit in patients with neglect. The results support the hypothesis that a right hemispheric network has a …
The role of posterior parietal cortices on prismatic adaptation effects on the representation of time intervals
Previous studies provided evidence of an ascending left-to-right spatial representation of time durations by using a technique affecting high levels of spatial cognition, i.e. prismatic adaptation (PA). Indeed, PA that induced a leftward aftereffect distorted time representation toward an underestimation, while PA that induced a rightward aftereffect distorted time representation toward an overestimation. The present study advances previous findings on the effects of PA on time by investigating the neural basis subtending these effects. We focused on the posterior parietal cortex (PPC) since it is involved in the PA procedure and also in the formulation of the spatial representation of time…
Left insular cortex and left SFG underlie prismatic adaptation effects on time perception: Evidence from fMRI
Prismatic adaptation (PA) has been shown to affect left-to-right spatial representations of temporal durations. A leftward aftereffect usually distorts time representation toward an underestimation, while rightward aftereffect usually results in an overestimation of temporal durations. Here, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to study the neural mechanisms that underlie PA effects on time perception. Additionally, we investigated whether the effect of PA on time is transient or stable and, in the case of stability, which cortical areas are responsible of its maintenance. Functional brain images were acquired while participants (n = 17) performed a time reproduction task an…
Time and spatial attention: Effects of prism adaptation on temporal deficits in brain damaged patients
Growing evidence indicates that the representations of space and time interact in the brain but the exact neural correlates of such interaction remain unknown. Neuroimaging and neuropsychological studies show that processing of temporal information engages a distributed network in the right hemisphere and suggest a link between deficits in spatial attention and deficits in time perception. In the present study we used the procedure of prismatic adaptation (PA) to directionally manipulate spatial attention in order to explore the effect of attentional deviation on time perception in patients with right (RBD) vs. left (LBD) brain damage. In a first experiment, two groups of RBD and LBD patien…
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. …
Prismatic Adaptation as a Novel Tool to Directionally Modulate Motor Cortex Excitability: Evidence From Paired-pulse TMS
Abstract Background The prismatic adaptation (PA) is a visuo-motor procedure that has captured the attention of neuroscientists in the last decades, hence it seems to affect high-order cognition. However, the basic neural processes related to PA and its effects on cortical plasticity are not clear yet. Objective/hypothesis The aim of the present study is to explore whether PA induces a direct effect on the motor cortices (M1) excitability. Methods Fourteen healthy participants were submitted to paired-pulse TMS to measure short-intracortical-inhibition (SICI) and intracortical-facilitation (ICF) on both the left and the right M1, before and after PA, that could induce a leftward or rightwar…