Parallel systems for processing temporal information in the brain

2020 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 18H03507
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 90030:Cognitive science-related
• Research Institution: National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology
• Principal Investigator: Yamamoto Shinya 国立研究開発法人産業技術総合研究所, 情報・人間工学領域, 主任研究員 (90371088)
• Project Period (FY): 2018-04-01 – 2021-03-31
• Keywords: 時間知覚 / 時間順序判断 / 同時性知覚

Outline of Final Research Achievements

There has been intense debate over whether the perception of temporal order and the perception of simultaneity share a common mechanism. It has been believed that, when the interval of two sensory stimuli is short, people find it difficult to judge the temporal order and tend to perceive the stimuli as simultaneous. This study thus aimed to investigate whether the uncertainty of subjective temporal order and the subjective simultaneity occur independently. To this end, a series of psychophysics experiments were conducted using two visual stimuli that had different durations. The data showed that temporal order uncertainty is independent of the subjective simultaneity, suggesting that the subjective temporal order and the subjective simultaneity are processed by different mechanisms in the brain.

Free Research Field

認知科学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究では、刺激時間長の異なる2つの視覚刺激が、短い時間差で提示された場合、「時間順序判断の不確定性」が生じるにもかかわらず、「主観的同時性」が生じないという現象を発見した。このことは、時間順序知覚と主観的同時性が脳内の別々のメカニズムによって処理されている可能性を示唆するものであり、脳内時間情報処理システムの全貌の解明につながりうる知見を提供することが出来た。