Department of Experimental Medicine, Section of Human Physiology, University of Genoa, 16132, Genoa, Italy.
IRCCS Ospedale Policlinico San Martino, Genoa, Italy.
Cerebellum. 2024 Aug;23(4):1386-1398. doi: 10.1007/s12311-023-01649-8. Epub 2023 Dec 26.
Temporal prediction (TP) influences our perception and cognition. The cerebellum could mediate this multi-level ability in a context-dependent manner. We tested whether a modulation of the cerebellar neural activity, induced by transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS), changed the TP ability according to the temporal features of the context and the duration of target interval. Fifteen healthy participants received anodal, cathodal, and sham tDCS (15 min × 2 mA intensity) over the right cerebellar hemisphere during a TP task. We recorded reaction times (RTs) to a target during the task in two contextual conditions of temporal anticipation: rhythmic (i.e., interstimulus intervals (ISIs) were constant) and single-interval condition (i.e., the estimation of the timing of the target was based on the prior exposure of the train of stimuli). Two ISIs durations were explored: 600 ms (short trials) and 900 ms (long trials). Cathodal tDCS improved the performance during the TP task (shorter RTs) specifically in the rhythmic condition only for the short trials and in the single-interval condition only for the long trials. Our results suggest that the inhibition of cerebellar activity induced a different improvement in the TP ability according to the temporal features of the context. In the rhythmic context, the cerebellum could integrate the temporal estimation with the anticipatory motor responses critically for the short target interval. In the single-interval context, for the long trials, the cerebellum could play a main role in integrating representation of time interval in memory with the elapsed time providing an accurate temporal prediction.
时间预测（TP）会影响我们的感知和认知。小脑可能以依赖上下文的方式介导这种多层次的能力。我们测试了通过经颅直流电刺激（tDCS）诱导的小脑神经活动的调制是否会根据上下文的时间特征和目标间隔的持续时间改变 TP 能力。15 名健康参与者在进行 TP 任务时接受了右小脑半球的阳极、阴极和假 tDCS（15 分钟×2 mA 强度）。我们在两种时间预期的上下文条件下记录了任务中目标的反应时间（RT）：节奏性（即，刺激间间隔（ISI）是恒定的）和单间隔条件（即，目标时间的估计基于刺激序列的先前暴露）。探索了两种 ISI 持续时间：600 毫秒（短试验）和 900 毫秒（长试验）。仅在短试验的节奏性条件和长试验的单间隔条件下，阴极 tDCS 改善了 TP 任务中的表现（更短的 RT）。我们的结果表明，根据上下文的时间特征，小脑活动的抑制会对 TP 能力产生不同的改善。在节奏性背景下，小脑可能会将时间估计与关键的预期运动反应结合起来，以应对短目标间隔。在单间隔背景下，对于长试验，小脑可能在将时间间隔的表示与经过的时间整合到记忆中以提供准确的时间预测方面发挥主要作用。
