time perception and EEG alpha

What is it about?

If one accepts the notion of an internal clock, then one must further presume that time production is attuned with the rate of functioning of the clock's pacemaker. We look at the individual's online EEG recording while performing a time-production task, placing one focus of interest on the individual's peak alpha frequency (PAF), and a s econd on alpha power and its topography. The participants completed a time- production task with online EEG recording, twice during a single session in the lab, in a pre-post design. We present data concerned with the topography of post-pre differences in alpha power, both during time production and during rest, as a function of an intervening period of either restful wakefulness or motor activity. Our major finding is that left PAF and right PAF mutually suppress each other in predicting produced duration, and that given the size and sign of their regression weights, it is a left-right asymmetry in PAF that plays a pivotal role here. On computing a left-right asymmetry index for PAF, we found that this index had a significant correlation with the mean log- transformed produced duration ( r = .364, p < .01), and that the relationship is stronger among females (r = .500, p < .005).

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Why is it important?

For some related work, see also: Glicksohn, J., Berkovich Ohana, A., Balaban Dotan, T., Goldstein, A., & Donchin, O. (2009). Time production and peak alpha frequency: The search continues. In M. A. Elliott, S. Antonijevic, S. Berthaud, P. Mulcahy B. Bargary, C. Martyn & H. Schmidt (Eds.), Fechner Day 2009: Proceedings of the 25th Annual Meeting of the International Society for Psychophysics (pp. 435-440). Galway: International Society for Psychophysics. Glicksohn, J., Dotan Ben Soussan, T., Berkovich Ohana, A., Goldstein, A., & Donchin, O. (2010). Time production, peak alpha frequency and sex differences: The plot thickens. In A. Bastianelli & G. Vidotto (Eds.), Fechner Day 2010: Proceedings of the 26th Annual Meeting of the International Society for Psychophysics (pp. 123-128). Padua: International Society for Psychophysics.

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