Torres Nathércia L, Castro São Luís, Silva Susana
Speech Laboratory, Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal.
Front Psychol. 2023 Sep 29;14:1130788. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1130788. eCollection 2023.
Time perception in humans can be relative (beat-based) or absolute (duration-based). Although the classic view in the field points to different neural substrates underlying beat-based vs. duration-based mechanisms, recent neuroimaging evidence provided support to a unified model wherein these two systems overlap. In line with this, previous research demonstrated that internalized beat cues benefit motor reproduction of longer intervals (> 5.5 s) by reducing underestimation, but little is known about this effect on pure perceptual tasks. The present study was designed to investigate whether and how interval estimation is modulated by available beat cues.
To that end, we asked 155 participants to estimate auditory intervals ranging from 500 ms to 10 s, while manipulating the presence of cues before the interval, as well as the reinforcement of these cues by beat-related interference within the interval (vs. beat-unrelated and no interference).
Beat cues aided time estimation depending on interval duration: for intervals longer than 5 s, estimation was better in the cue than in the no-cue condition. Specifically, the levels of underestimation decreased in the presence of cues, indicating that beat cues had a facilitating effect on time perception very similar to the one observed previously for time production.
Interference had no effects, suggesting that this manipulation was not effective. Our findings are consistent with the idea of cooperation between beat- and duration-based systems and suggest that this cooperation is quite similar across production and perception.
人类的时间感知可以是相对的（基于节拍）或绝对的（基于时长）。尽管该领域的经典观点指出基于节拍和基于时长的机制有不同的神经基础，但最近的神经影像学证据支持了一个统一模型，其中这两个系统存在重叠。与此一致的是，先前的研究表明，内化的节拍线索通过减少低估来促进较长间隔（>5.5秒）的运动再现，但对于这种效应在纯感知任务中的情况知之甚少。本研究旨在调查间隔估计是否以及如何受到可用节拍线索的调节。
为此，我们要求155名参与者估计从500毫秒到10秒的听觉间隔，同时操纵间隔前线索的存在，以及通过间隔内与节拍相关的干扰（与与节拍无关和无干扰相比）来强化这些线索。
节拍线索有助于时间估计，这取决于间隔时长：对于超过5秒的间隔，有线索条件下的估计比无线索条件下更好。具体而言，在有线索的情况下低估水平降低，这表明节拍线索对时间感知有促进作用，与之前在时间产生中观察到的非常相似。
干扰没有影响，这表明这种操纵无效。我们的发现与基于节拍和基于时长的系统之间合作的观点一致，并表明这种合作在产生和感知过程中非常相似。
