SENSEx Lab, International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA), 34136, Trieste, Italy.
Brain & Sound Lab, Department of Biomedicine, Basel University, 4056, Basel, Switzerland.
Nat Commun. 2024 Feb 24;15(1):1712. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-45970-0.
Decision making frequently depends on monitoring the duration of sensory events. To determine whether, and how, the perception of elapsed time derives from the neuronal representation of the stimulus itself, we recorded and optogenetically modulated vibrissal somatosensory cortical activity as male rats judged vibration duration. Perceived duration was dilated by optogenetic excitation. A second set of rats judged vibration intensity; here, optogenetic excitation amplified the intensity percept, demonstrating sensory cortex to be the common gateway both to time and to stimulus feature processing. A model beginning with the membrane currents evoked by vibrissal and optogenetic drive and culminating in the representation of perceived time successfully replicated rats' choices. Time perception is thus as deeply intermeshed within the sensory processing pathway as is the sense of touch itself, suggesting that the experience of time may be further investigated with the toolbox of sensory coding.
决策通常依赖于对感官事件持续时间的监测。为了确定时间的感知是否以及如何源自刺激本身的神经元表示，我们记录并光遗传调制了雄性大鼠判断振动持续时间时的触须感觉皮层活动。光遗传兴奋扩大了感知持续时间。第二组大鼠判断振动强度；在这里，光遗传兴奋增强了强度感知，表明感觉皮层既是时间处理的共同门户，也是刺激特征处理的共同门户。一个从触须和光遗传驱动引发的膜电流开始，并最终以感知时间的表示结束的模型成功地复制了大鼠的选择。因此，时间感知与触觉本身一样深深地交织在感觉处理通路中，这表明可以使用感觉编码的工具包进一步研究时间体验。
