The functional role of temporal structure in human perception: behavioral evidence and neural correlates.
- Author:
Rui-Chen HU
1
;
Pei-Jun YUAN
1
;
Yi JIANG
1
;
Ying WANG
1
Author Information
1. State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Science, CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
- Publication Type:Journal Article
- MeSH:
Attention;
Auditory Perception;
Brain;
physiology;
Humans;
Time Perception;
Visual Perception
- From:
Acta Physiologica Sinica
2019;71(1):105-116
- CountryChina
- Language:Chinese
-
Abstract:
To extract the temporal structure of sensory inputs is of great significance to our adaptive functioning in the dynamic environment. Here we characterize three types of temporal structure information, and review behavioral and neural evidence bearing on the encoding and utilization of such information in visual and auditory perception. The evidence together supports a functional view that the brain not only tracks but also makes use of temporal structure from diverse sources for a broad range of cognitive processes, such as perception, attention, and unconscious information processing. These functions are implemented by brain mechanisms including neural entrainment, predictive coding, as well as more specific mechanisms that vary with the type of temporal regularity and sensory modality. This framework enriches our understanding of how the human brain promotes dynamic information processing by exploiting regularities in ubiquitous temporal structures.
