Original Research Article
Using Time-To-Contact information to assess potential collision modulates both visual and temporal prediction networks
1 Laboratoire de Neurobiologie de la Cognition, Pole 3C, Universite Aix-Marseille, CNRS, France
2 Institut des Sciences du Mouvement, Faculté des Sciences du Sport, Universite Aix-Marseille, CNRS, France
3 Centre IRMf de Marseille, CHU Timone, France
4 School of Psychology, Queen’s University Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK
2 Institut des Sciences du Mouvement, Faculté des Sciences du Sport, Universite Aix-Marseille, CNRS, France
3 Centre IRMf de Marseille, CHU Timone, France
4 School of Psychology, Queen’s University Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK
Accurate estimates of the time-to-contact (TTC) of approaching objects are crucial for survival. We used an ecologically valid driving simulation to compare and contrast the neural substrates of egocentric (head-on approach) and allocentric (lateral approach) TTC tasks in a fully factorial, event-related fMRI design. Compared to colour control tasks, both egocentric and allocentric TTC tasks activated left ventral premotor cortex/frontal operculum and inferior parietal cortex, the same areas that have previously been implicated in temporal attentional orienting. Despite differences in visual and cognitive demands, both TTC and temporal orienting paradigms encourage the use of temporally predictive information to guide behaviour, suggesting these areas may form a core network for temporal prediction. We also demonstrated that the temporal derivative of the perceptual index tau (tau-dot) held predictive value for making collision judgements and varied inversely with activity in primary visual cortex (V1). Specifically, V1 activity increased with the increasing likelihood of reporting a collision, suggesting top-down attentional modulation of early visual processing areas as a function of subjective collision. Finally, egocentric viewpoints provoked a response bias for reporting collisions, rather than no-collisions, reflecting increased caution for head-on approaches. Associated increases in SMA activity suggest motor preparation mechanisms were engaged, despite the perceptual nature of the task.
Keywords: collision, timing, prediction, attention, fMRI, visual, parietal, premotor
Copyright: © 2008 Coull, Vidal, Goulon, Nazarian and Craig. This is an open-access article subject to an exclusive license agreement between the authors and the Frontiers Research Foundation, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original authors and source are credited.
*Correspondence: Jennifer T. Coull, Laboratoire de Neurobiologie de la Cognition, Université Aix-Marseille & CNRS, Pôle 3C, 3 place Victor-Hugo, 13331 Marseille cedex 3, France. jennifer.coull@univ-provence.fr
Citation: Coull JT, Vidal F, Goulon C, Nazarian B and Craig C (2008) Using Time-To-Contact information to assess potential collision modulates both visual and temporal prediction networks. Front. Hum. Neurosci. (2008) 2:10. doi:10.3389/neuro.09.010.2008
Received: 17 June 2008; paper pending published: 07 July 2008; accepted: 05 September 2008; published online: 13 September 2008.
Edited by:
Anna C. Nobre, University of Oxford, UK
Reviewed by:
Ricarda I. Schubotz, Max Planck Institute of Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Germany
Salvatore M. Aglioti, Universita degli studi di Roma, Italy
Anna C. Nobre, University of Oxford, UK
Salvatore M. Aglioti, Universita degli studi di Roma, Italy
Anna C. Nobre, University of Oxford, UK
*Correspondence: Jennifer T. Coull, Laboratoire de Neurobiologie de la Cognition, Université Aix-Marseille & CNRS, Pôle 3C, 3 place Victor-Hugo, 13331 Marseille cedex 3, France. jennifer.coull@univ-provence.fr


