ON THE STRUCTURE OF THE TEMPORAL SENSORY SYSTEM

Evidence is reviewed that favours the hypothesis that temporal perform ance depends on a temporal sensory system based on a biological source of temporal information. A model for the pacemaker, initially propose d by Treisman (1963) and elaborated by Treisman, Faulkner, Naish and B rogan (1990), predicts that if regular stimulus pulses (such as audito ry clicks) are presented at suitable rates during intervals whose dura tions are estimated by a subject, the pulses may perturb the frequency at which the subject's temporal oscillator runs and so perturb time e stimation, resulting in a characteristic pattern of interference. Such interference patterns have been found for time estimation when subjec ts were exposed to auditory clicks, or visual flicker, and for the tim ing of movement. Records of the electroencephalogram were taken while subjects estimated time durations accompanied by trains of auditory cl icks. Analyses provide evidence for the presence in the EEG of click-s ensitive oscillations. Implications of this finding for the organizati on of an underlying temporal sensory system are discussed.