Role of the Olivo-Cerebellar System in Timing

Xu, Duo; Liu, Tao; Ashe, James; Bushara, Khalafalla O.

doi:10.1523/jneurosci.0038-06.2006

Cited by 107 publications

(98 citation statements)

References 52 publications

(67 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…The present study significantly extends the findings of previous studies on the importance of the olivocerebellar system in the timing of sensory events (21,25). Our data demonstrate that the response of the inferior olive and multiple areas within the cerebellar cortex to changes in stimulus timing occur regardless of whether the subjects were aware of such changes.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 87%

Role of olivocerebellar system in timing without awareness

Ashe²,

Bushara

2011

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The timing of events can be implicit or without awareness yet critical for task performance. However, the neural correlates of implicit timing are unknown. One system that has long been implicated in event timing is the olivocerebellar system, which originates exclusively from the inferior olive. By using event-related functional MRI in human subjects and a specially designed behavioral task, we examined the effect of the subjects' awareness of changes in stimulus timing on the olivocerebellar system response. Subjects were scanned while observing changes in stimulus timing that were presented near each subject's detection threshold such that subjects were aware of such changes in only approximately half the trials. The inferior olive and multiple areas within the cerebellar cortex showed a robust response to time changes regardless of whether the subjects were aware of these changes. Our findings provide support to the proposed role of the olivocerebellar system in encoding temporal information and further suggest that this system can operate independently of awareness and mediate implicit timing in a multitude of perceptual and motor operations, including classical conditioning and implicit learning.cerebellum | visual E ncoding the timing of events is an inherent component of perceptual and motor tasks. Such timing can be implicit or without the subject's awareness yet important for performance regardless of the goal of the task. For example, when throwing a ball at a target, the spatial accuracy relies, at least partially, on precise motor timing; however, subjects may not be explicitly aware of the timing of individual components of this complex multijoint movement (1, 2). Similarly, subjects may improve the speed and accuracy of performing a perceptual task by implicitly using temporal information to predict the timing of sensory stimuli (i.e., temporal expectancy) (3, 4). More directly, implicit timing can be conceptualized as a critical component of classical conditioning and other stimulus/response association processes such as implicit learning and automatic behavior. However, implicit timing or timing without awareness has been difficult to characterize in experimental settings, especially in animal studies, and its neural correlates remain poorly understood (5). One system that has long been implicated in event timing is the olivocerebellar system, which originates exclusively in the inferior olive (6-12). Whether the olivocerebellar system mediates timing without awareness has not been demonstrated directly to our knowledge. However, the capacity of the inferior olive and the climbing fiber system to encode temporal information independently of awareness is supported by indirect evidence from classical conditioning and single cell recording literature (10)(11)(13)(14)(15)(16). In the few imaging and lesion studies in humans that specifically addressed the cerebellar contribution to implicit timing, the term "implicit timing" has not been strictly defined as timing without awareness (5,(17)(18)(19)(2...

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 87%

Role of olivocerebellar system in timing without awareness

Ashe²,

Bushara

2011

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…We would point out, however, that the study includes subjects with advanced disease and widespread atrophy who do not show individual deficits in beat-based rhythm perception. The preservation of performance contrasts with expectations based on cerebellar activation in fMRI studies of normal controls, and suggests that such activity might not be an obligatory aspect of relative time perception (9,11,13,40).…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 71%

Dissociation of duration-based and beat-based auditory timing in cerebellar degeneration

Grube

Cooper

Chinnery

et al. 2010

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

175

183

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This work tests the hypothesis that the cerebellum is critical to the perception of the timing of sensory events. Auditory tasks were used to assess two types of timing in a group of patients with a stereotyped specific degeneration of the cerebellum: the analysis of single time intervals requiring absolute measurements of time, and the holistic analysis of rhythmic patterns based on relative measures of time using an underlying regular beat. The data support a specific role for the cerebellum only in the absolute timing of single subsecond intervals but not in the relative timing of rhythmic sequences with a regular beat. The findings support the existence of a stopwatch-like cerebellar timing mechanism for absolute intervals that is distinct from mechanisms for entrainment with a regular beat.T he relevance of the human cerebellum to the perception of time intervals and rhythmic sequences is controversial. Involvement of the cerebellum in perceptual timing (the perception of the timing of sensory events), in addition to its role in motor timing (the timed execution of movements), has been suggested by a number of studies (1-6). One distinction that we wish to address here, which has not been made clear in previous work, is between the absolute, duration-based timing of single subsecond intervals and the relative timing of subsecond intervals based on a regular beat. Functional imaging studies suggest neural activity in the human cerebellum during the perception of the absolute duration of single time intervals (7,8) as well as rhythmic patterns with a regular beat (9-13). However, previous lesion work to assess an obligatory cerebellar role in the perception of single time intervals has not yielded consistent results (4,(14)(15)(16)(17). Previous lesion work to assess any obligatory role of the cerebellum in the analysis of rhythmic sequences has assessed only deficits in related motor activity, such as tapping out a beat (4,14,18), that do not allow clear inference about perception.In this study, we test whether the cerebellum is a critical substrate for perceptual tasks that require the absolute, durationbased analysis of single time intervals as well as those that require the relative analysis of time intervals within rhythmic patterns based on a regular beat. Perceptual tests were conducted in the auditory domain, where accurate temporal encoding of sensory events is essential and entrainment with a beat is induced naturally. Tasks were administered to a group of 34 patients with a stereotyped cerebellar degeneration and a matched control group of 40 healthy individuals. Two absolute timing tasks tested the perception of single intervals for a variable and a fixed reference duration, respectively ( Fig. 1 A and B). Three relative timing tasks tested the beat-based analysis of rhythmic sequences, including the detection of the presence of a roughly regular beat (19), a deviation from an isochronous beat (20) and a distortion of a rhythmic pattern with a metrical beat (21) (Fig. 1 C-E). The data support a ce...

show abstract

“…Our data enabled us to rule out a difference in the quantity of eye movements between steering and the control conditions as an explanation of the cerebellar activation, but we cannot rule out the requirements of temporal coordination at this stage. Another possibility is that the cerebellar activity reflected the precise timing requirements of the button presses in the steering task (Ivry and Spencer, 2004;Xu et al, 2006). Our control device mapped duration of press onto angle of rotation in the simulated visual scene.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neural Systems in the Visual Control of Steering

Field¹,

Wilkie²,

Wann³

2007

J. Neurosci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Visual control of locomotion is essential for most mammals and requires coordination between perceptual processes and action systems. Previous research on the neural systems engaged by self-motion has focused on heading perception, which is only one perceptual subcomponent. For effective steering, it is necessary to perceive an appropriate future path and then bring about the required change to heading. Using function magnetic resonance imaging in humans, we reveal a role for the parietal eye fields (PEFs) in directing spatially selective processes relating to future path information. A parietal area close to PEFs appears to be specialized for processing the future path information itself. Furthermore, a separate parietal area responds to visual position error signals, which occur when steering adjustments are imprecise. A network of three areas, the cerebellum, the supplementary eye fields, and dorsal premotor cortex, was found to be involved in generating appropriate motor responses for steering adjustments. This may reflect the demands of integrating visual inputs with the output response for the control device.

show abstract

Role of the Olivo-Cerebellar System in Timing

Cited by 107 publications

References 52 publications

Role of olivocerebellar system in timing without awareness

Role of olivocerebellar system in timing without awareness

Dissociation of duration-based and beat-based auditory timing in cerebellar degeneration

Neural Systems in the Visual Control of Steering

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About