MEMORY: Measuring the relationship between perception of space and time

Time and space are normally considered to be independent, and are studied typically separately by neuroscientists. However, evidence is beginning to emerge that they are in fact strongly interconnected in the brain [1, 2]. Experiments in our laboratory, using standard techniques of adaptation, show that neural units sensing the time of events are spatially selective [3]. In these experiments observers adapted to a grating drifting within a 12 ° diameter patch while fixating on a spot to its lower left; once the adaptation period elapsed, they changed their gaze to a target that appeared 15 ° right of fixation. Eight hundred ms after the display of the target, a test grating was presented for 600 ms in one of three randomly chosen positions: the same retinotopic position, the same spatiotopic position or in one that was neither (control condition). Perceived duration in the control and th