The brain time estimation system is dynamically assembled by non-temporal perceptual states

Abstract

To investigate how neural integration of visual signals distorts human time perception, we developed a novel apparent motion paradigm. We found that the higher the frequency of visual events defined by spatial location, the longer the perception duration. At the same visual event frequency, perceptual duration was shorter when motion perception was evoked. We propose that the non-temporal perceptual states dynamically determine which core brain region (read-out system) and which group of activated neurons (timing units) assemble into a time estimation system. Timing units have activation delays in integrating input signals, which results in shorter perceptual time since perceptual duration depends only on the outputs of timing units. The read-out system consumes operating time to accumulate each timing unit, this results in a longer perception time the more timing units are accumulated in the same physical duration. Subsequently, experiments further validated two predictions of our perceptual assembly model.