Abstract
In the last two decades, much evidence has demonstrated that the motor system is involved in the encoding of temporal processing in perception. How this interconnection is implemented remains elusive. In a shared resource view, the temporal interpretation of events might emerge directly from motor plans. In a recalibration view, motor and temporal processing are separate but the former calibrates the latter. In accordance with the recalibration model, perception and action have opposing functional roles with regard to the specificity of processing. Perception has to discriminate whereas action planning has to coordinate. If the temporal properties of one of the effectors were distorted, all other movement plans would need to be recalibrated in order to produce successful behavior. Here, we tested whether time-critical and goal-oriented movements are affected more globally by adapting compared to the beknown direction, movement type and context specificity of spatial adaptation. In a ready-set-go paradigm, participants reproduced the interval between ready- and set-signals by performing different arm and hand movements in Virtual Reality (VR). In adaptation trials, we introduced a temporal perturbation, such that movements in VR appeared slowed down. Participants had to temporally adapt their behavior to sustain performance. We found that adaptation effects transferred between different movement types, interval ranges, target locations, and environmental contexts. However, adaptation effects did not transfer if the sensory modality switched from vision to audition. Consistent with the need of coordination and unlike recalibrating to spatial perturbations, the temporal planning of motor actions is recalibrated more globally within the motor system. By contrast, in perception, adaptation effects were localized in sensory modalities, supporting the perceptual aim of discriminating between stimulus features. Our findings suggest that temporal processing for perception and action are separate and that movement errors recalibrate temporal perception.