SeminarPast EventBrain Imaging

Visualising time in the human brain

Schedule
Tuesday, May 17, 2022
12:15 UTC
Jennifer Coull

LNC, Aix, Marseille Université & CNRS

Host: NeuroLeman Network

Event Information

Host

NeuroLeman Network

Duration

70 minutes

Abstract

We all have a sense of time. Yet it is a particularly intangible sensation. So how is our “sense” of time represented in the brain? Functional neuroimaging studies have consistently identified a network of regions, including Supplementary Motor Area and basal ganglia, that are activated when participants make judgements about the duration of currently unfolding events. In parallel, left parietal cortex and cerebellum are activated when participants predict when future events are likely to occur. These structures are activated by temporal processing even when task goals are purely perceptual. So why should the perception of time be represented in regions of the brain that have more traditionally been implicated in motor function? One possibility is that we learn about time through action. In other words, action could provide the functional scaffolding for learning about time in childhood, explaining why it has come to be represented in motor circuits of the adult brain.

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