Alpha/beta power compresses time in sub-second temporal judgments

Abstract

ABSTRACTWhile the perception of time plays a crucial role in our day-to-day functioning, the underlying neural mechanism of time processing on short time scales (~1s) remains to be elucidated. Recently, the power of beta oscillations (~20 Hz) has been suggested to play an important role in temporal processing. However, the paradigms supporting this view have often had confounds of working memory, as well as motor preparation. In the current EEG study, we set out to investigate if power of oscillatory activity would be involved in time perception without an explicit working memory component or confound of a motor response. Participants indicated through a button press whether the time between a tone and a visual stimulus was 1 or 1.5s.Critically, we focused on the differences in oscillatory activity in the alpha (~10 Hz) and beta (~20 Hz) ranges preceding correct versus incorrect temporal judgments. Behaviourally, we found participants made more errors on the long (1.5s) than on the short (1s) interval. In addition, we found that participants were fastest to correctly respond to a long interval. The onset of the tone induced a suppression of alpha and beta activity over occipital and parietal electrodes. In the long estimation intervals, this suppression was greater for correct than incorrect estimations. Interestingly, alpha and beta suppression allowed us to predict whether participants would judge the long interval correctly. For the short interval trials we did not find a significant difference in alpha or beta band activity for the correct and incorrect judgments. Taken together, our behavioural and EEG results suggest a multifaceted role of alpha and beta activity in the temporal estimation of sub- and supra-second intervals, where power increases seem to lead to temporal compression. Higher alpha and beta power resulted in shorter temporal judgments for sub-second intervals.HighlightsTemporal judgments without motor confounds were studied with EEG.Alpha/beta activity differences for correct and incorrect temporal judgments.Sub-second intervals were judged as short when alpha/beta power was higher.