The perception of time is dynamically interlocked with the facial muscle activity

Abstract

Time perception relies on the motor system. Involves core brain regions of this system, including those associated with feelings generated from sensorimotor states. Perceptual timing is also distorted when movement occurs during timing tasks, possibly by interfering with sensorimotor afferent feedback. However, it is unknown if the perception of time is an active process associated with specific patterns of muscle activity. We explored this idea based on the phenomenon of electromyographic gradients, which consists of the dynamic increase of muscle activity during cognitive tasks that require sustained attention, a critical function in perceptual timing. We aimed to determine whether facial muscle dynamic activity indexes the subjective representation of time. We asked participants to judge stimuli durations (varying in familiarity) while we monitored the time course of the activity of the zygomaticus-major and corrugator-supercilii muscles, both associated with cognitive and affective feelings. The dynamic electromyographic activity in corrugator-supercilii over time reflected objective time and this relationship predicted subjective judgments of duration. Furthermore, the zygomaticus-major muscle signaled the bias that familiarity introduces in duration judgments. This suggests that subjective duration could be an embodiment process based in motor information changing over time and their associated feelings.

The Editing Density of Moving Images Influences Viewers’ Time Perception: The Mediating Role of Eye Movements

“…H4: Additionally, we hypothesized that eye movements would mediate the effect of editing density on DJs. In other terms, based on previous research showing a relationship between the temporal dynamics of performed movement and DJs (Fernandes & Garcia-Marques, 2019), we expected that slow-and fast-paced editing would lead to overestimation of durations through faster ocular activity (indexed by shorter FDs). Finally, we also examined the association between saccadic amplitude and time perception to observe whether DJs would be related to both oculomotor activity parameters.…”

“…Along this line of reasoning, some theorists have recently proposed an embodied account of time perception (Droit-Volet, Fayolle, Lamotte, & Gil, 2013Wittmann, 2014), which differs from other existing models (e.g., Gibbon, Church, & Meck, 1984;Treisman, Faulkner, Naish, & Brogan, 1990;Zakay & Block, 1997) as it claims that motor simulations and bodily states play a critical role in time judgments. In more detail, it has been argued that the conscious representation of time descends from a temporal integration of bodily feelings over time (e.g., Craig, 2009;Wackermann, Meissner, Tankersley, & Wittmann, 2014;Wittmann, 2013Wittmann, , 2014, including those associated with self-generated movements (Fernandes & Garcia-Marques, 2019). This representation could be generated in the insula cortex-a primary receptive area for afferent signals from the body (Craig, 2009)-as some research has found an accumulating pattern of neural activity in this brain structure during timing tasks, resembling a cumulative temporal process (Wittmann, Simmons, Aron, & Paulus, 2010).…”

“…Moreover, accuracy was associated with higher interoceptive awareness (i.e., the ability to detect bodily changes). In a recent study, Fernandes and Garcia-Marques (2019) have shown that dynamic facial muscle activity (measured using electromyography) is related to the subjects' representation of time (i.e., the duration estimation of a visual stimulus): Higher muscle deactivation latency and lower activation amplitude of the corrugator-supercilii predicted estimates of longer duration. On a related note, previous research has highlighted the role of sensory-motor experience in the DJ of emotional facial expressions: It has been shown that the inhibition of spontaneous facial mimicry cancels out the overestimation of duration of emotional compared to neutral faces (Effron, Niedenthal, Gil, & Droit-Volet, 2006).…”

“…So far, most research on audiovisual experience has used eye movements (i.e., saccades and fixations) as a realtime measure of viewers' attentional and cognitive processing of films (e.g., Loschky et al, 2015;Smith, 2013;. By contrast, based on previous research showing a relationship between the individual's own performed movement and DJs (e.g., Fernandes & Garcia-Marques, 2019), in this study, we measured eye movements as a marker of oculomotor activity to examine the effects of editing density on viewers' time perception.…”

“…A possible explanation offered to account for these action‐related temporal distortions is the idea that movement actively structures time perception, even when the timing task does not explicitly require it. Latest theories and research have argued that the human ability to estimate time durations is embedded in the motor system, whose functions—such as planning, executing, and monitoring of movements and actions—are highly reliant on implicit timing (Fernandes & Garcia‐Marques, 2019; Gallagher, 2011, 2016; Gavazzi, Bisio, & Pozzo, 2013; Merchant & Yarrow, 2016; Wittman, 2009, 2014). In support of this claim, the activation of brain areas that are strongly implied in motor functions has been consistently observed during time estimation tasks (Coull, Vidal, & Burle, 2016; for a meta‐analysis, see Wiener, Turkeltaub, & Coslett, 2010).…”