Object size determines the spatial spread of visual time

A key question for temporal processing research is how the nervous system extracts event duration, despite a notable lack of neural structures dedicated to duration encoding. This is in stark contrast to the orderly arrangement of neurons tasked with spatial processing. In the current study, we exam...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Fulcher, Corinne, McGraw, Paul V., Roach, Neil W., Whitaker, David, Heron, James
Format: Article
Published: Royal Society 2016
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/34940/
_version_ 1848794966426386432
author Fulcher, Corinne
McGraw, Paul V.
Roach, Neil W.
Whitaker, David
Heron, James
author_facet Fulcher, Corinne
McGraw, Paul V.
Roach, Neil W.
Whitaker, David
Heron, James
author_sort Fulcher, Corinne
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description A key question for temporal processing research is how the nervous system extracts event duration, despite a notable lack of neural structures dedicated to duration encoding. This is in stark contrast to the orderly arrangement of neurons tasked with spatial processing. In the current study, we examine the linkage between the spatial and temporal domains. We use sensory adaptation techniques to generate aftereffects where perceived duration is either compressed or expanded in the opposite direction to the adapting stimulus’ duration. Our results indicate that these aftereffects are broadly tuned, extending over an area approximately five times the size of the stimulus. This region is directly related to the size of the adapting stimulus – the larger the adapting stimulus the greater the spatial spread of the aftereffect. We construct a simple model to test predictions based on overlapping adapted vs non-adapted neuronal populations and show that our effects cannot be explained by any single, fixed-scale neural filtering. Rather, our effects are best explained by a self scaled mechanism underpinned by duration selective neurons that also pool spatial information across earlier stages of visual processing.
first_indexed 2025-11-14T19:24:35Z
format Article
id nottingham-34940
institution University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus
institution_category Local University
last_indexed 2025-11-14T19:24:35Z
publishDate 2016
publisher Royal Society
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling nottingham-349402020-05-04T17:59:26Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/34940/ Object size determines the spatial spread of visual time Fulcher, Corinne McGraw, Paul V. Roach, Neil W. Whitaker, David Heron, James A key question for temporal processing research is how the nervous system extracts event duration, despite a notable lack of neural structures dedicated to duration encoding. This is in stark contrast to the orderly arrangement of neurons tasked with spatial processing. In the current study, we examine the linkage between the spatial and temporal domains. We use sensory adaptation techniques to generate aftereffects where perceived duration is either compressed or expanded in the opposite direction to the adapting stimulus’ duration. Our results indicate that these aftereffects are broadly tuned, extending over an area approximately five times the size of the stimulus. This region is directly related to the size of the adapting stimulus – the larger the adapting stimulus the greater the spatial spread of the aftereffect. We construct a simple model to test predictions based on overlapping adapted vs non-adapted neuronal populations and show that our effects cannot be explained by any single, fixed-scale neural filtering. Rather, our effects are best explained by a self scaled mechanism underpinned by duration selective neurons that also pool spatial information across earlier stages of visual processing. Royal Society 2016-07-27 Article PeerReviewed Fulcher, Corinne, McGraw, Paul V., Roach, Neil W., Whitaker, David and Heron, James (2016) Object size determines the spatial spread of visual time. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 283 (1835). ISSN 1471-2954 time perception; spatial selectivity; duration adaptation; visual; size; aftereffect http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/283/1835/20161024 doi:10.1098/rspb.2016.1024 doi:10.1098/rspb.2016.1024
spellingShingle time perception; spatial selectivity; duration adaptation; visual; size; aftereffect
Fulcher, Corinne
McGraw, Paul V.
Roach, Neil W.
Whitaker, David
Heron, James
Object size determines the spatial spread of visual time
title Object size determines the spatial spread of visual time
title_full Object size determines the spatial spread of visual time
title_fullStr Object size determines the spatial spread of visual time
title_full_unstemmed Object size determines the spatial spread of visual time
title_short Object size determines the spatial spread of visual time
title_sort object size determines the spatial spread of visual time
topic time perception; spatial selectivity; duration adaptation; visual; size; aftereffect
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/34940/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/34940/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/34940/