Clock Speed as a Window into Dopaminergic Control of Emotion and Time Perception

Abstract

Although fear-producing treatments (e.g., electric shock) and pleasure-inducing treatments (e.g., methamphetamine) have different emotional valences, they both produce physiological arousal and lead to effects on timing and time perception that have been interpreted as reflecting an increase in speed of an internal clock. In this commentary, we review the results reported by Fayolle et al. (2015): Behav. Process., 120, 135-140) and Meck (1983: J. Exp. Psychol. Anim. Behav. Process., 9, 171-201) using electric shock and by Maricq et al. (1981: J. Exp. Psychol. Anim. Behav. Process., 7, 18-30) using methamphetamine in a duration-bisection procedure across multiple duration ranges. The psychometric functions obtained from this procedure relate the proportion 'long' responses to signal durations spaced between a pair of 'short' and 'long' anchor durations. Horizontal shifts in these functions can be described in terms of attention or arousal processes depending upon whether they are a fixed number of seconds independent of the timed durations (additive) or proportional to the durations being timed (multiplicative). Multiplicative effects are thought to result from a change in clock speed that is regulated by dopamine activity in the medial prefrontal cortex. These dopaminergic effects are discussed within the context of the striatal beat frequency model of interval timing (Matell & Meck, 2004: Cogn. Brain Res., 21, 139-170) and clinical implications for the effects of emotional reactivity on temporal cognition (Parker et al., 2013: Front. Integr. Neurosci., 7, 75).

Synchrony and emotion in children and adults

“…There is a debate concerning the mechanisms involved in the acceleration of time in response to the increased physiological arousal produced by emotion. However, most researchers agree in considering that the time distortions that occur under the influence of H-A emotion result from the speeding-up of the internal clock system (Cheng, Tipples, Narayanan, & Meck, 2016). According to the internal clock models (Gibbon, Church, & Meck, 1984), a pacemaker emits a number of pulses that are gated into an accumulator during the stimulus to be timed.…”

Ramping activity is a cortical mechanism of temporal control of action

“…Patients with Parkinson's disease have impaired cortical function, and have executive dysfunction which can impact their ability to perform interval-timing tasks [11,39,40]. Drugs that affect dopaminergic systems reliably impair performance during timing tasks [51], and might provide a window not only into timing, but other complex processes such as emotion [52]. It is not clear how these manipulations impair ramping activity in humans; however, in rats, frontal dopamine depletion attenuates ramping [39].…”

Recent advances in understanding emotion-driven temporal distortions

“…If these distortions do play a functional role, future work should consider how the malleability of time perception could be leveraged to affect behavioral, cognitive, and emotional changes. There is great promise that the study of emotion-driven temporal distortions can tell us more about how time perception shapes how we experience the world [61]. …”