Department of Psychology, "Sapienza" University of Rome, Via dei Marsi 78, 00185, Rome, Italy.
Cognitive and Motor Rehabilitation and Neuroimaging Unit, IRCCS Fondazione Santa Lucia, Rome, Italy.
Brain Struct Funct. 2023 Mar;228(2):687-695. doi: 10.1007/s00429-023-02612-3. Epub 2023 Jan 25.
The estimation of incidentally encoded durations of time intervals (retrospective duration processing) is thought to rely on the retrieval of contextual information associated with a sequence of events, automatically encoded in medial temporal lobe regions. "Time cells" have been described in the hippocampus (HC), encoding the temporal progression of events and their duration. However, whether the HC supports explicit retrospective duration judgments in humans, and which neural dynamics are involved, is still poorly understood. Here we used resting-state fMRI to test the relation between variations in intrinsic connectivity patterns of the HC, and individual differences in retrospective duration processing, assessed using a novel task involving the presentation of ecological stimuli. Results showed that retrospective duration discrimination performance predicted variations in the intrinsic connectivity of the bilateral HC with the right precentral gyrus; follow-up exploratory analyses suggested a role of the CA1 and CA4/DG subfields in driving the observed pattern. Findings provide insights on neural networks associated with implicit processing of durations in the second range.
对时间间隔的偶然编码持续时间的估计（回溯持续时间处理）被认为依赖于与事件序列相关的上下文信息的检索，这些信息自动编码在颞叶中部区域。在海马体（HC）中已经描述了“时间细胞”，编码事件的时间进展及其持续时间。然而，HC 是否支持人类的明确回溯持续时间判断，以及涉及哪些神经动力学，仍然知之甚少。在这里，我们使用静息态 fMRI 来测试 HC 的内在连接模式的变化与使用涉及呈现生态刺激的新任务评估的回溯持续时间处理的个体差异之间的关系。结果表明，回溯持续时间判别性能预测了双侧 HC 与右侧中央前回之间内在连接的变化；后续的探索性分析表明 CA1 和 CA4/DG 亚区在驱动观察到的模式中起作用。研究结果为与第二范围的持续时间的隐式处理相关的神经网络提供了见解。
