Temporal processing is crucial to many cognitive and motor functions. Comparing different aspects of temporal processing is important for a fundamental understanding of its neural mechanisms. In this study, the neural substrates activated during duration discrimination tasks across different sensory modalities, audition and vision, and sensory structures, empty and filled interval, were examined using event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The supplementary motor area and the basal ganglia are suggested as the common neural substrates for temporal processing across sensory modalities and sensory structures for explicit timing in the subsecond range.

It has been suggested that the cerebellum participates in diverse neuropsychological functions by adjusting the sensory information acquired for the connected brain regions to support its processing capabilities. Nevertheless, the knowledge of how the cerebellum is modulated by the sensory information is far from clear. Function magnetic resonance imaging was exploited to investigate how the cerebellum activity and cerebrocerebellum interaction can be affected by the interaction between visual size and duration information during visual duration discrimination. The present findings support the sensory acquisition hypothesis that the cerebellum, together with extensive cortical networks, yields higher activation with incongruent sensory information to cope with increasing cortical computational demand. Furthermore, comprehensive intracerebellum connections are engaged in tasks with congruent sensory information for saving cortical computation with integrated sensory information.

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