Impact of Vestibular Lesions on Allocentric Navigation and Interval Timing: The Role of Self-Initiated Motion in Spatial-Temporal Integration

Abstract

Bilateral intratympanic sodium arsenate injections (100 mg/ml in isotonic saline) in adult male Long Evans rats produced impairments in allocentric navigation using a 12-arm radial maze procedure as well as a motor test battery designed to evaluate vestibular function. In contrast, no impairments in the accuracy or precision of duration reproduction using 20-s and 80-s peak-interval procedures were observed when both target durations were associated with the same lever response, but distinguished by signal modality (e.g., light or sound). In contrast, an ordinal-reproduction procedure with 800, 3200, and 12,800 ms standards requiring the timing of self-initiated movements during the production phase revealed large impairments in the accuracy and precision of timing for vestibular lesioned rats. These impairments were greater on trials in which self-initiated body movements (e.g., holding down the response lever for a fixed duration) were required without the support of external stimuli signaling the onset and offset of the reproduced duration in contrast to trials in which such external support was provided. The conclusion is that space and time are separable entities and not simply the product of a generalized system, but they can be integrated into a common metric using gravity and self-initiated movement as a reference.

Emotional modulation of interval timing and time perception

“…The SBF model proposes that time perception is largely subserved by connections between the striatum, cortex, and thalamus, with the dorsal striatum being specifically crucial for proper timing abilities (49, 174, 177–179, 183). According to this model, the start signal to time a stimulus is marked by the phasic release of dopamine from dopaminergic midbrain projections to the cortex and dorsal striatum.…”

Temporal cognition: Connecting subjective time to perception, attention, and memory.

“…A common magnitude system. Walsh (2003;Bueti & Walsh, 2009;) has proposed that time, space, and quantity are represented in a common 'magnitude system' located in the brain's parietal cortex (see also Aagten-Murphy, Iversen, Williams, & Meck, 2014;Dallal, Yin, Nekovářová, Stuchlík, & Meck, 2015). Under this view, the influence of numerosity, length, or digit-size on temporal judgments arises because these dimensions share a unified metric -the implication being that the measurement of any one of these dimensions involves measuring the others so that the measurement of duration, for example, is partly based on the measurement of number, spatial extent, numerosity, and so on (Figure 4, top right).…”

The modulation of hippocampal theta rhythm by the vestibular system

“…Studies in the late 20th century suggested that the vestibular system also plays an important role in spatial navigation, memory and other cognitive functions (see Besnard et al 2016;Bigelow and Agrawal 2015;Büttner and Lang 1979;Guldin et al 1992;Guldin and Grüsser 1998;Gurvich et al 2013;Shinder and Taube 2010;Smith 1997Smith , 2017Smith et al 2005aSmith et al , 2005bSmith et al , 2010a, 2010b for reviews). Numerous behavioral studies have shown that damage to the vestibular system impairs performance in learning and memory tasks (Baek et al 2010;Besnard et al 2012;Black et al 2004;Bigelow et al 2015;Brandt et al 2005;Chapuis et al 1992;Dallal et al 2015;Guidetti et al 2008;Horn et al 1981;Hüfner et al 2007;Jáuregui-Renaud et al 2008a, 2008bKremmyda et al 2016;Machado et al 2012aMachado et al , 2012bMachado et al 2014;Matthews et al 1989;Neo et al 2012;Ossenkopp and Hargreaves 1993;Russell et al 2003a;Sang et al 2006;Schaeppi et al 1991;Schautzer et al 2003;Semenov et al 2016;Semenov and Bures 1989;Smith et al 2013;Stackman and Herbert 2002;Wackym et al 2016;…”