Cognitive neuroscience of temporal processing

描述（由申请人提供）：预测和产生具有时间精度的响应的能力是诸如联想学习、掌握复杂动作、音乐以及诸如驾驶、烹饪等日常活动等重要且多样的人类能力的基础;实际上，在没有良好发展的评估时间的能力的情况下，人将不能够安全地穿过忙碌的十字路口。时间处理在行为中所起的关键作用也可以通过以下事实来说明，即涉及运动和间隔计时的基本机制似乎在进化的早期就已经发展起来并被保存下来。例如，在金鱼、椋鸟、大鼠、灵长类动物和人类中已经证明了一种发育良好的间隔计时能力。事实上，正如Giovanni及其同事所指出的那样，大鼠在间隔时间方面表现出与人类相同的标量特性，但在时间精度方面没有明显差异。我们提出了一系列的调查，以探索人类的时间处理的神经基础。将进行三种类型的研究。首先，我们建议管理一系列的调查动机的当代模型的时间处理的受试者涉及基底神经节以及特定的皮质区域（外侧额叶，下顶叶，颞叶）的脑病变。通过比较具有不同脑损伤部位的受试者的表现，并将表现与记忆、语言、注意力和认知的其他指标相关联，我们希望确定时间处理的大脑区域和机制。第二组调查将使用功能性MRI来探索年轻健康受试者的颞叶处理的解剖基础。最后，我们建议使用经颅磁刺激来识别正常时间处理所需的特定大脑区域。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The ability to predict and generate responses with temporal precision underlies such crucial and diverse human capacities as associative learning, mastering complex movements, music as well as everyday activities such as driving, cooking; indeed, in the absence of a well-developed ability to ability to evaluate time, one would not be able to safely cross a busy intersection. The critical role in behavior played by temporal processing may also be illustrated by the fact that basic mechanisms involved in motor and interval timing appear to have developed early in evolution and been conserved. For example, a well-developed capacity for interval timing has been demonstrated in goldfish, starlings, rats, primates and humans. Indeed, as noted by Gibbon and colleagues, rats exhibit the same scalar property in interval timing demonstrated by humans but do not differ appreciably with respect to temporal precision. We propose a series of investigations to explore the neural basis of temporal processing in humans. Three types of studies will be performed. First, we propose to administer a series of investigations motivated by a contemporary model of temporal processing to subjects with brain lesions involving the basal ganglia as well as specific cortical regions (lateral frontal lobe, inferior parietal lobe; temporal lobe). By comparing the performance of subjects with different loci of brain damage and correlating performance with other measures of memory, language, attention and cognition, we expect to identify the brain regions and mechanisms underlying time processing. A second set of investigations will use functional MRI to explore the anatomic bases of temporal processing in young healthy subjects. Finally, we propose to use transcranial magnetic stimulation to identify specific brain regions that are necessary for normal temporal processing.