Automatic Bias of Temporal Expectations following Temporally Regular Input Independently of High-level Temporal Expectation

Abstract

Exposure to rhythmic stimulation results in facilitated responses to events that appear in-phase with the rhythm and modulation of anticipatory and target-evoked brain activity, presumably reflecting "exogenous," unintentional temporal expectations. However, the extent to which this effect is independent from intentional processes is not clear. In two EEG experiments, we isolated the unintentional component of this effect from high-level, intentional factors. Visual targets were presented either in-phase or out-of-phase with regularly flickering colored stimuli. In different blocks, the rhythm could be predictive (i.e., high probability for in-phase target) or not, and the color could be predictive (i.e., validly cue the interval to the target) or not. Exposure to nonpredictive rhythms resulted in faster responses for in-phase targets, even when the color predicted specific out-of-phase target times. Also, the contingent negative variation, an EEG component reflecting temporal anticipation, followed the interval of the nonpredictive rhythm and not that of the predictive color. Thus, rhythmic stimulation unintentionally induced expectations, even when this was detrimental. Intentional usage of predictive rhythms to form expectations resulted in a stronger behavioral effect, and only predictive cues modulated the latency of the target-evoked P3, presumably reflecting stimulus evaluation. These findings establish the existence of unintentional temporal expectations in rhythmic contexts, dissociate them from intentional expectations, and highlight the need to distinguish between the source of expectation (exogenous-endogenous) and the level of voluntary control involved in it (unintentional-intentional).

Neural dissociation of automatic and controlled temporal preparation by transcranial magnetic stimulation

“…In particular, temporal orienting is more sensitive to frontal TMS than preparation based on rhythms. Considering the classic involvement of frontal areas in executive control, this result converges with research showing that rhythms (but not symbolic cues) can enhance preparation automatically, regardless of task instructions (Rohenkohl et al, 2011) and intentional temporal expectations (Breska and Deouell, 2014), despite the interference of a simultaneous working memory task in a dual task procedure (Capizzi et al, 2013de la Rosa et al, 2012), and without the need of a functional right prefrontal cortex (Triviño et al, 2011). Moreover, this process of rhythmic preparation seems to develop independently of explicit timing processes.…”

“…Other studies using temporally regular, isochronous sequences of stimuli (hereafter referred to as "rhythms") have also reported changes in performance and brain activity as a function of the matching between the inter-onset interval (interval between the onset of two stimuli forming the rhythmic sequence) and the foreperiod (Barnes and Jones, 2000;Bolger et al, 2014;Breska and Deouell, 2014;Correa and Nobre, 2008;Cravo et al, 2013;Doherty et al, 2005;Jones et al, 2002;Lange, 2009Lange, , 2010Sanabria et al, 2011;Sanabria and Correa, 2013;Schmidt-Kassow et al, 2009;Schwartze et al, 2011). The dynamic attending theory (Large and Jones, 1999) can explain these findings by assuming that regularity provided by rhythmic stimulation entrains attention to focus on points in time matching the structure of the rhythm.…”

“…These two forms of temporal preparation, temporal orienting and rhythms, have been dissociated in behavioural (Rohenkohl et al, 2011) and event-related potentials (ERP) studies (Breska and Deouell, 2014). For example, preparation is impaired when a working memory task is performed concurrently with a temporal orienting task (Capizzi et al, 2013.…”

Combining spatial and temporal expectations to improve visual perception

“…It is not guaranteed that temporal expectations coming from these various sources are all supported by the same neurophysiological mechanisms and have the same consequences for behavior. Some evidence suggests that mechanisms supporting temporal expectations generated by rhythms versus symbolic cues differ (Breska & Deouell, 2014;Coull & Nobre, 2008;Jepma et al, 2012;Lange, 2012Lange, , 2013Trivino, Arnedo, Lupianez, Chirivella, & Correa, 2011;Trivino, Correa, Arnedo, & Lupianez, 2010). Future studies are necessary to investigate systematically the ability of these different sources of temporal expectation to interact with other types of expectations.…”

Taxonomies of timing: where does the cerebellum fit in?

“…This implies the operation of a predictive temporal adjustment, similar to that in temporal cueing tasks. This form of anticipation appears to be implicit, as it occurs even when explicit timing is engaged by a secondary task [60*]. In contrast to the implicit perceptual timing tasks reviewed above, imaging studies involving rhythmic predictions fail to find activations in the cerebellum [61, 62*].…”