Is the automaticity of body movement a key to modulate time perception during body movement?

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25750265
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Developmental mechanisms and the body works
• Research Institution: Kochi University of Technology
• Principal Investigator: Yabe Yoshiko 高知工科大学, 総合研究所, 客員研究員 (30582829)
• Research Collaborator: SHIGEMASU Hiroaki 高知工科大学, 情報学群, 准教授 (90447855) ; Goodale Melvyn A. 西オンタリオ大学, 脳と心の研究所, 教授 ; MacDonald Penny A. 西オンタリオ大学, 脳と心の研究所, 教授 ; Dave Hemangi 西オンタリオ大学, 学生
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: time perception / action / Libet clock / Go/Nogo / Parkinson's disease / EEG / MRI

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Morrone et al. (Nat Neurosci 2005) has shown that when two events occur just before a rapid eye movement, the perceived order of the occurrence is reversed. We hypothesized that externally triggered body movement causes temporal compensation of perception, which allows us to perceive stable environment besides our rapid body movements. In the first study, we found that the temporal reversal reported by Morrone et al. (2005) is specific to the externally triggered movement. In the second study, we focused on the perceived onset of the trigger to show how reactive body movement affects time perception. We found that when people react to a sudden visual stimulus that triggers an action, that stimulus is perceived to occur later than an identical stimulus presented during passive viewing with no motor programming. The polarity of this temporal distortion was opposite in Parkinson’s disease patients without medication, which suggests the contribution of dopamine system on time perception.

Free Research Field

Cognitive neuroscience