ACTION AND TIME

Perception of Time during Action Preparation

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 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'Expert baseball players commonly report that they feel the ball ‘slowing down’ when about to swing their bat. Their comments raise an interesting question of how humans perceive time prior to action, in other words, how motor preparatory activity effects on visual processing to change the subjective flow of time. Every daily event is associated with time, and we intuitively feel that we live on a constant and continuous time line. However, studies have revealed that physical temporal events and the perception of these events are not always matched. This counterintuitive nature of temporal perception has fascinated philosophers and scientists for centuries. Since humans are moving animals, perception of time must also be studied in an active situation. However, most studies relating temporal perception have, thus far, focused on static sensory processing and few studies have addressed how action can modulate an actor’s perception of time. The aim of this proposal is to understand the modulation of human temporal perception in an active context; focusing on the period when the brain is preparing for action. A series of behavioural and electrophysiological studies will be conducted to reveal the neuronal mechanism involved in this process. State-of-art machine learning algorithms will be used to analyze brain activity, and also a recently developed brain stimulation technique will be used to modulate brain activity, in order to elucidate the causal relationship between brain activity and temporal perception. The proposed research is expected to advance research in neurocognition of action, a distinctively European research field, by incorporating state-of-art research techniques. It will also facilitate interdisciplinary interaction between related fields (neuroscience, psychology, engineering and philosophy) within the European research community, and will contribute to building and maintaining connections between European and Japanese research communities.'

Introduzione (Teaser)

Professional baseball players often report feeling as if the ball slows as they are preparing to strike it with their bats. EU-funded researchers conducted the first study that provides scientific data supporting this anecdotal observation.

Descrizione progetto (Article)

Movies sometimes show an accident about to happen in slow motion so that the audience sees it mirrored on the actor's face as he or she prepares to try and avoid it. According to recent research by EU-funded scientists, it turns out that our brains in fact slow down or dilate time while preparing to act. The project 'Perception of time during action preparation' (ACTION AND TIME) demonstrated that visual sensory perception is modulated by preparation for a movement related to that input.

Subjects were shown a visual stimulus, a white disk, on a computer monitor. They were asked to judge its duration as either short or long. Control subjects were not asked to do anything. In the experimental condition, the subjects were instructed to reach out toward a second disk that appeared on the monitor right after the white disk disappeared.

Results showed that the visual stimulus was perceived to have a longer duration only when an action was prepared. In addition, the amount of time dilation was related to the degree of motor preparation, manipulated by the uncertainty that an action would be required. Interestingly, preparation for action not only dilated time perception but also slowed down the perceived frequency of a flickering stimulus. Experiments also showed that this slowing down was linked to an increased capacity for visual information processing.

As the first scientific study to support reports by baseball players that the ball seems to slow before they swing the bat to hit it, it received widespread media attention. The findings were broadcast by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC news), Le Figaro, the Austrian Broadcasting Company and CBS News in the United States.

In addition to its inherent value in deeper understanding of nervous system function, the project's outcomes are relevant to many fields in which action to a stimulus is required. These include athletics, gaming, and just about every type of job involving manual labour or vehicle operation. Better understanding related mechanisms can eventually help manufacturers to create better products, players to hone their senses and employee training programmes to have the most impact.