Temporal constraints of perceiving, generating, and integrating information: Clinical indications

Neuropsychological research on temporal constraints of perception and motor performance can add important information to research on human behavior, W ithout considering temporal mechanisms of perceiving, generating, and updat ing information, brain mechanisms can never be fully understood. In this st udy temporal aspects of performance in psychophysical experiments on three different temporal levels (around 30 ms, 300 ms, and 3000 ms) were investig ated in patients with acquired brain lesions and a control group without ne urological deficits. The patients had acquired focal brain lesions in: ante rior(pre-central) regions of the left hemisphere (with non-fluent aphasia), posterior (post-central) regions of the left hemisphere (with fluent aphas ia), the left hemipshere in predominantly subcortical regions (without apha sia), or anterior (pre-central) or posterior (post-central) regions of the right hemipshere, Perception of temporal order (20 to 60 ms) was impaired i n patients with left-hemispheric post-central lesions; repetitive voluntary action (300 to 500 ms) was affected mostly in patients with left hemispher ic lesions, both pre-central and post-central; and a deficit in integrating (2000 ms to 3000 ms) information was most pronounced in patients with left and right pre-central lesions. These findings provide insight into the ass ociations between different levels of temporal organisation and circumscrib ed regions of the neocortex.