Effect of task difficulty on the functional anatomy of temporal processing

Temporal processing underlies many aspects of human perception, performance and cognition. The present study used fMRI to examine the functional neuroanatomy of a temporal discrimination task and to address two questions highlighted by previous studies: (1) the effect of task difficulty on neuronal activation and (2) the involvement of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) in timing. Twenty healthy subjects were scanned while either judging whether the second in a pair of tones was shorter or longer in duration than the standard tone or simply responding to the presentation of two identical tones as a control condition. Two levels of difficulty were studied. Activation during the less difficult condition was observed only in the cerebellum and superior temporal gyrus. As difficulty increased, additional activation of the supplementary motor area, insula/operculum, DLPFC, thalamus and striatum was observed. These results suggest the cerebellum plays a critical role in timing, particularly in gross temporal discrimination. These results also suggest that recruitment of frontal and striatal regions during timing tasks is load-dependent. Additionally, robust activation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex under conditions of minimal working memory involvement supports the specific involvement of this region in temporal processing rather than a more general involvement in working memory.