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Recently, I was introduced to a fascinating research topic by my friend Simon Grondin: Time perception. What first captured my interest was an excellent primer on this topic that Simon published in Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics (Grondin, 2010). Of course, given my research interests, I was mostly intrigued by the question of perceptual asymmetries in time perception and the possibility that one cerebral hemisphere would do a better job than the other at time estimation. Essentially, theories of time perception typically suggest that there is some kind of counter or pacemaker that can be affected by a number of factors, such as arousal and attention. Therefore, my question becomes: Is this counter lateralized in the brain?
I was surprised to discover that there has been little research on perceptual asymmetries relevant to this question. Nicholls (1996) reviewed literature on tasks pertaining to the processing of temporal material and suggested the presence of a left hemisphere advantage. However, when you look closely, you discover that the material reviewed by Nicholls has little to do with time estimation and is mostly relevant to the ability to perceive discontinuity in stimuli or the order of presentation of stimuli.
When considering situations where a direct time judgment is required, the data are all over the place! Grondin, Voyer, and Bisson (2011) as well as Mills and Rollman (1979; Experiment 2) reported a left hemisphere advantage in a task requiring a judgment of relative duration for two stimuli presented in sequence in what is known as the method of constant stimuli. Brancucci, D’Anselmo, Martello, and Tomasi (2008) also found a left hemisphere advantage in a task relying on direct duration discrimination. In contrast, Buchtel, Rizzolatti, Anzola, and Bertoloni (1978), Grondin and Girard (2005), and Voyer and Reuangrith (2014) all reported a right hemisphere advantage.
These contradictory findings can actually be explained by examining more closely the tasks used by the various authors. In all studies that found a left hemisphere advantage, discrimination of short intervals was required whereas in those that reported a right hemisphere specialization, a global judgment of duration was involved. This interpretation fits quite well with the asymmetric sampling in time hypothesis (Poeppel, 2003; Poeppel & Hackl, 2008). According to this hypothesis, each cerebral hemisphere would have an optimal temporal integration window, with the left hemisphere favoring the processing of information within a short (~ 25 ms) window as required in short intervals discrimination. In contrast, the right hemisphere would process events within a longer window (~ 200 ms) as required in global duration judgments. From this perspective, time perception would not require a special mechanisms different from the one used for speech and prosody perception. Specifically, the asymmetric sampling in time model was originally developed to account for the left hemisphere advantage in speech perception (requiring perception of acoustic changes over a short period) and the right hemisphere advantage for prosody and emotion (requiring perception of acoustic changes over a longer period). In short, time perception could work the same way as speech and prosody perception.
This last conclusion actually is an overgeneralization when we think about specific brain structures. What I mean is that the overall perceptual asymmetries might reflect the same asymmetric sampling in time. However, this likely only represents the preferred mode of processing for a given cerebral hemisphere, without implying that the same structures are involved. For example, Gooch, Wiener, Hamilton, and Coslett (2011) used neuroimaging with brain damaged patients and they determined that right frontal areas are involved in duration discrimination regardless of interval duration (less or more than one second). However, left temporal areas were also involved with sub-seconds discrimination. These findings provide some support for the asymmetric sampling in time interpretation. However, the cerebral areas involved in time perception are different from those involved in language and prosody perception.
Of course, this post is only scratching the surface of this question but, in my view, the data suggest that mechanisms similar to what is happening in speech perception are at play for time perception. However, we need much more behavioral and neuroimaging research investigating short interval judgments and global judgments to validate my conclusion.
References
Brancucci, A., D’Anselmo, A., Martello, F., & Tommasi, L. (2008). Left hemisphere specialization for duration discrimination of musical and speech sounds. Neuropsychologia, 46, 2013–2019. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2008.01.019
Buchtel, H. A., Rizzolatti, G., Anzola, G. P., & Bertoloni, G. (1978). Right hemispheric superiority in discrimination of brief acoustic duration. Neuropsychologia, 16, 643–647.
Gooch, C. M., Wiener, M., Hamilton, A. C., & Coslet, H. B. (2011). Temporal discrimination of sub- and suprasecond time intervals: A voxel-based lesion mapping analysis. Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience, 5, 59. doi: 10.3389/fnint.2011.00059
Grondin, S. (2010). Timing and time perception: A review of recent behavioral and neuroscience findings and theoretical directions. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 72, 561-582.
Grondin, S., Voyer, D., & Bisson, N. (2011). Perceptual asymmetries in the discrimination of brief time intervals marked by auditory signals. Laterality, 16, 513-527.
Grondin, S. & Girard, C. (2005). About hemispheric differences in the processing of temporal intervals. Brain and Cognition, 58, 125-132.
Mills, L., & Rollmann, G. B. (1979). Left hemisphere selectivity for processing duration in normal subjects. Brain and Language, 7, 320–335.
Nicholls, M. E. R. (1996). Temporal processing asymmetries between the cerebral hemispheres: Evidence and implications. Laterality, 1, 97-137. doi:10.1080/713754234
Poeppel, D. (2003). The analysis of speech in different temporal integration windows: Cerebral lateralization as “asymmetric sampling in time”. Speech Communication, 41, 245-255. doi: 10.1016/S0167-6393(02)00107-3
Poeppel, D., & Hackl, (2008). The functional archictecture of speech perception. In J. R. Pomerantz (Ed.), Topics in integrative neuroscience (pp. 154-180). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Voyer, D., & Reuangrith, E. (2014). Perceptual asymmetries in a time estimation task with emotional sounds. Laterality. doi: 10.1080/1357650X.2014.953956.
