Motor Timing and Covariation with Time Perception: Investigating the Role of Handedness

Abstract

Time is a fundamental dimension of our behavior and enables us to guide our actions and to experience time such as predicting collisions or listening to music. In this study, we investigate the regulation and covariation of motor timing and time perception functions in left- and right-handers who are characterized by distinct brain processing mechanisms for cognitive-motor control. To this purpose, we use a combination of tasks that assess the timed responses during movements and the perception of time intervals. The results showed a positive association across left- and right-handers between movement-driven timing and perceived interval duration when adopting a preferred tempo, suggesting cross-domain coupling between both abilities when an intrinsic timescale is present. Handedness guided motor timing during externally-driven conditions that required cognitive intervention, which specifies the relevance of action expertise for the performance of timed-based motor activities. Overall, our results reveal that individual variation across domain-general and domain-specific levels of organization plays a steering role in how one predicts, perceives and experiences time, which accordingly impacts on cognition and behavior.

Time Processing, Interoception, and Insula Activation: A Mini-Review on Clinical Disorders

“…It is also important to distinguish between motor and perceptual timing. The first refers to the execution of a motor act to represent a temporal interval, as in the case of a time-line bisection task (e.g., Vicario, 2011 ), temporal production/reproduction ( Vicario et al, 2011a , b ), finger tapping ( O’Regan et al, 2017 ), and movement synchronization ( Vicario, 2012 ). The second involves a time comparison task, such as performing a task of discrimination between the duration of a reference and the duration of a target stimulus (e.g., Grondin et al, 1999 ; Vicario et al, 2009 , 2012 ).…”

Time to imagine moving: Simulated motor activity affects time perception

“…Over the subsequent years, studies have repeatedly shown that motor activity and time perception are not only correlated, but interdependent. Thus, for example, O’Regan et al ( 2017 ) observed an interrelationship between handedness, timed motor behaviour, and time experience. Interval timing is also a critical part of the experience of music, and while music perception is well known to affect time perception, it is now becoming clear that musical action and embodiment affect how we experience music in time (Maes et al, 2014 ).…”

Space, time and number: common coding mechanisms and interactions between domains

“…Research has shown that handedness not only affects the sensorimotor control mechanisms (Klöppel, et al 2007 ; Pool, et al 2014 ; Reid & Serrien, 2014 ; Serrien, et al 2012 ) but also influences how individuals attend to and respond to the environment. In other words, handedness influences a range of abilities that involves visuospatial functions (Bareham, et al 2015; Hécaen & Sauguet, 1971 ; O’Regan & Serrien, 2018 ; Vogel, et al 2003 ), attentional regulation in space and time (Buckingham et al, 2009 ; O’Regan, et al 2017 ) and visual processing in perihand space (Le Bigot & Grosjean, 2012 ). Combined, these findings illustrate that handedness has a widespread impact on the processing requirements of space and time for meeting behavioural goals.…”