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Rate after-effects fail to transfer cross-modally: Evidence for distributed sensory timing mechanisms
Motala, A. Heron, James McGraw, Paul V. Roach, N.W. Whitaker, David J.
Motala, A.
Heron, James
McGraw, Paul V.
Roach, N.W.
Whitaker, David J.
Publication Date
2018-01-17
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© The Author(s) 2018. Open Access. This article is licensed under a
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openAccess
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2017-12-19
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Abstract
Accurate time perception is critical for a number of human behaviours, such as understanding speech
and the appreciation of music. However, it remains unresolved whether sensory time perception is
mediated by a central timing component regulating all senses, or by a set of distributed mechanisms,
each dedicated to a single sensory modality and operating in a largely independent manner. To address
this issue, we conducted a range of unimodal and cross-modal rate adaptation experiments, in order
to establish the degree of specificity of classical after-effects of sensory adaptation. Adapting to a fast
rate of sensory stimulation typically makes a moderate rate appear slower (repulsive after-effect), and
vice versa. A central timing hypothesis predicts general transfer of adaptation effects across modalities,
whilst distributed mechanisms predict a high degree of sensory selectivity. Rate perception was
quantified by a method of temporal reproduction across all combinations of visual, auditory and tactile
senses. Robust repulsive after-effects were observed in all unimodal rate conditions, but were not
observed for any cross-modal pairings. Our results show that sensory timing abilities are adaptable but,
crucially, that this change is modality-specific - an outcome that is consistent with a distributed sensory
timing hypothesis.
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Citation
Motala A, Heron J, McGraw PV et al (2018) Rate after-effects fail to transfer crossmodally:
evidence for distributed sensory timing mechanisms. Scientific Reports. 8: 924.
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