Duration Selectivity in Right Parietal Cortex Reflects the Subjective Experience of Time
Journal of Neuroscience September 14, 2020 Masamichi J. Hayashi, R. Ivry
The subjective sense of time is a fundamental dimension of sensory experience. An fMRI study using an adaptation procedure manipulated perceived duration while holding physical duration constant. A short adaptor biased participants to judge stimuli as longer, and a long adaptor biased them to judge stimuli as shorter. Duration tuning modulation, shown by an attenuated BOLD response to stimuli similar in duration to the adaptor, was observed in the right supramarginal gyrus (SMG) of the parietal lobe and middle occipital gyrus, bilaterally. The magnitude of the behavioral aftereffect correlated positively with the magnitude of duration tuning modulation in SMG. These results indicate that duration-tuned neural populations in right SMG reflect the subjective experience of time.