Timing in perceptual and motor tasks after disturbances of the brain

Abstract For an understanding of how functions are represented in the brain it appears useful to distinguish between content-related or complex functions, e.g. perception, learning, memory and action, and logistics-related or elementary functions, namely activation and temporal integration and organisation. Elementary functions that temporally structure the content-related functions are a necessary prerequisite of conscious experience and actions. With various experimental paradigms different levels of temporal processing and organisation of information and behaviour are assessed, which can be differentially impaired depending on the nature and localization of damage to the brain. This will be shown for patients with focal brain lesions, for patients with symptomatic HIV infection and for patients with epilepsy who received different treatment.