Cognitive neuroscience of temporal processing

描述(申请人提供)：准确预测和产生时间反应的能力是人的各种能力的基础，如联想学习、掌握复杂的动作、音乐以及驾驶、烹饪等日常活动；事实上，如果没有良好的评估时间的能力，一个人就不能安全地穿过繁忙的十字路口。时间加工在行为中所起的关键作用也可以从一个事实来说明，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、八哥、老鼠、灵长类动物和人类身上已经证明了间隔计时的良好能力。事实上，正如Gibbon和他的同事所指出的那样，大鼠在时间间隔计时上表现出与人类相同的标量特性，但在时间精确度方面没有明显差异。我们提出了一系列研究来探索人类时间加工的神经基础。将进行三种类型的研究。首先，我们建议在当代时间加工模型的推动下，对涉及基底节和特定皮质区域(额叶外侧、顶叶下叶、颞叶)的脑损伤受试者进行一系列调查。通过比较具有不同大脑损伤部位的受试者的表现，并将其与记忆、语言、注意力和认知的其他指标相关联，我们有望确定大脑中潜在的时间处理区域和机制。第二组研究将使用功能磁共振来探索年轻健康受试者的时间处理的解剖学基础。最后，我们建议使用经颅磁刺激来识别正常时间处理所必需的特定脑区。

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.