Cognitive neuroscience of temporal processing

描述（由申请人提供）：预测和产生反应的时间精度的能力，是诸如联想学习，掌握复杂动作，音乐以及驾驶，烹饪等日常活动等重要和多样化的人类能力的基础；的确，如果没有一种发达的评估时间的能力，一个人就不可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通过以下事实来说明：涉及运动和间隔时间的基本机制似乎在进化早期就发展起来了，并得到了保存。例如，金鱼、椋鸟、老鼠、灵长类动物和人类都有非常发达的间隔计时能力。事实上，正如吉本及其同事所指出的那样，老鼠在间隔时间上表现出与人类相同的标量特性，但在时间精度方面并没有明显的不同。我们提出了一系列的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，我们建议对涉及基底神经节和特定皮质区域（侧额叶、下顶叶、颞叶）的脑损伤受试者进行一系列由当代时间处理模型驱动的调查。通过比较不同脑损伤位点的受试者的表现，并将其与记忆、语言、注意力和认知等其他指标的表现相关联，我们希望能够确定时间处理的大脑区域和机制。第二组研究将使用功能性核磁共振成像来探索年轻健康受试者颞叶加工的解剖学基础。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.