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It is known that Temporal Information Processing (TIP) underpins our cognitive functioning. Previous research has focused on the relationship between TIP efficiency and oscillatory brain activity, especially the gamma rhythm; however, non-oscillatory (aperiodic or 1/f) brain activity has often been missed. Recent studies have identified the 1/f component as being important for the functioning of the brain. Therefore, the current study aimed to verify whether TIP efficiency is associated with specific EEG resting state cortical activity patterns, including oscillatory and non-oscillatory (aperiodic) brain activities. To measure individual TIP efficiency, we used two behavioral tasks in which the participant judges the order of two sounds separated by millisecond intervals. Based on the above procedure, participants were classified into two groups with high and low TIP efficiency. Using cluster-based permutation analyses, we examined between-group differences in oscillatory and non-oscillatory (aperiodic) components across the 1-90 Hz range. The results revealed that the groups differed in the aperiodic component across the 30-80 Hz range in fronto-central topography. In other words, participants with low TIP efficiency exhibited higher levels of aperiodic activity, and thus a flatter frequency spectrum compared to those with high TIP efficiency. We conclude that participants with low TIP efficiency display higher levels of 'neural noise', which is associated with poorer quality and speed of neural processing., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial and nonfinancial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Temporal information processing (TIP) constitutes a complex construct that underlies many cognitive functions and operates in a few hierarchically ordered time domains. This study aimed to verify the relationship between the tens of milliseconds and hundreds of milliseconds domains, referring to perceptual and motor timing, respectively. Sixty four young healthy individuals participated in this study. They underwent two auditory temporal order judgement tasks to assess their performance in the tens of milliseconds domain; on this basis, groups of high-level performers (HLP) and low-level performers (LLP) were identified. Then, a maximum tapping task was used to evaluate performance in the hundreds of milliseconds domain. The most remarkable result was that HLP achieved a faster tapping rate and synchronised quicker with their "internal clock" during the tapping task than did LLP. This result shows that there is a relationship between accuracy in judging temporally asynchronous stimuli and ability to achieve and maintain the pace of a movement adequate to one's internal pacemaker. This could indicate the strong contribution of a common timing mechanism, responsible for temporal organisation and coordination of behaviours across different millisecond domains., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

People with aphasia (PWA) often present deficits in non-linguistic cognitive functions, such as executive functions, working memory, and temporal information processing (TIP), which intensify the associated speech difficulties and hinder the rehabilitation process. Therefore, training targeting non-linguistic cognitive function deficiencies may be useful in the treatment of aphasia. The present study compared the effects of the novel Dr. Neuronowski ® training method (experimental training), which particularly emphasizes TIP, with the linguistic training commonly applied in clinical practice (control training). Thirty four PWA underwent linguistic and non-linguistic assessments before and after the training as well as a follow-up assessment. Patients were randomly assigned to either experimental (n = 18) or control groups (n = 16). The experimental training improved both non-linguistic functions (TIP and verbal short-term and working memory) and linguistic functions: phoneme discrimination, sentence comprehension, grammar comprehension, verbal fluency, and naming. In contrast, the control training improved only grammar comprehension and naming. The follow-up assessment confirmed the stability of the effects of both trainings over time. Thus, in PWA, Dr. Neuronowski ® training appears to have broader benefits for linguistic and non-linguistic functions than does linguistic training. This provides evidence that Dr. Neuronowski ® may be considered a novel tool with potential clinical applications., (© 2023. Springer Nature Limited.)

Background: Aphasia is often accompanied by impairment of non-language cognitive functions. Assessment of cognitive capacity in people with aphasia (PWA) with standard neuropsychological methods may be problematic due to their language difficulties. Numerous experimental studies indicate that P300 may be considered as an index of cognitive capacity in both healthy and clinical samples. Accordingly, the measurement of event-related potentials enables the investigation of behaviourally non-observable mental processes underlying the cognitive functions that are assessed with neuropsychological tests., Aims: To investigate in PWA the relationship between P300 parameters and cognitive function efficiency measured with neuropsychological methods., Methods & Procedures: A total of 25 PWA after left-hemispheric stroke participated in the study. Electrophysiological (EEG) signals were recorded during the performance of a visual Go-No Go task. P300 was identified on nine electrodes, which were then pooled in three lines: left (F3, C3, P3), central (Fz, Cz, Pz) and right (F4, C4, P4). The neuropsychological assessment of cognitive functions included mental speed, short-term memory, divided attention, executive functions, auditory language comprehension and expression., Outcomes & Results: P300 latency correlated with indices of several cognitive functions: temporal resolution, psychomotor speed, spatial short-term memory, planning, word and sentence comprehension, as well as verbal fluency. Shorter P300 latencies were accompanied by greater efficiency of the abovementioned functions. In contrast, significant correlations between P300 amplitudes and cognitive measures were fragmentary., Conclusions & Implications: In PWA, P300 latency might be related to cognitive functioning, especially to measures that rely heavily on the speed of information processing. However, P300 seems to be unrelated to more complex cognitive functions. P300 latency may be used as a neurophysiological correlate of cognitive efficiency in PWA and might have potential applications in monitoring the effects of therapeutic interventions in this patient group., What This Paper Adds: What is already known on the subject P300 parameters have been reported to be associated with cognitive performance in both healthy individuals and clinical groups (e.g., patients with Alzheimer's disease). Previous studies show that the presence of P300 at the early post-stroke stage may be a predictor of better recovery of comprehension in PWA. What this paper adds to existing knowledge Our results show for the first time that P300 may be used as a neurophysiological correlate of cognitive efficiency in PWA. In our study, P300 latency was associated with several languages and non-language cognitive functions, especially with those whose effectiveness depends mainly on processing speed. In PWA, shorter latency corresponded to more efficient cognitive functioning. What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work? P300 measurement may be potentially useful in assessing the efficiency of certain cognitive functions in PWA. It may be also used to monitor the recovery process of PWA and to verify the effects of therapeutic interventions., (© 2022 The Authors. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists.)

Planning is a fundamental mental ability related to executive functions. It allows to select, order and execute subgoals to achieve a goal. Studies have indicated that these processes are characterised by a specific temporal dynamics reflected in temporal information processing (TIP) in some tens of millisecond domain. Both planning and TIP decline with age but the underlying mechanisms are unclear. The novel value of the present study was to examine these mechanisms in young (n = 110) and elderly (n = 91) participants in Tower of London task, considering two structural properties of problems: search depth related to static maintenance in working memory, and goal ambiguity reflecting dynamic cognitive flexibility. Results revealed that TIP predicted planning accuracy both directly and indirectly (via preplanning) but only in young participants in problems characterised by high goal ambiguity. Better planning is related to longer preplanning and more efficient TIP. This result demonstrates for the first time age-related differences in the contribution of TIP to planning. In young participants TIP contributed to dynamic cognitive flexibility, but not to static maintenance processes. In elderly such relation was not observed probably because the deficient planning might depend on working memory maintenance rather than on cognitive flexibility., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

Previous studies indicate that there are at least two levels of temporal processing: the sub- and supra-second domains. The relationship between these domains remains unclear. The aim of this study was to test whether performance on the sub-second level is related to that on the supra-second one, or whether these two domains operate independently. Participants were 118 healthy adults (mean age = 23 years). The sub-second level was studied with a temporal-order judgment task and indexed by the Temporal Order Threshold (TOT), on which lower values corresponded to better performance. On the basis of TOT results, the initial sample was classified into two groups characterized by either higher temporal efficiency (HTE) or lower temporal efficiency (LTE). Next, the efficiency of performance on the supra-second level was studied in these two groups using the subjective accentuation task, in which participants listened to monotonous sequences of beats and were asked to mentally accentuate every n-th beat to create individual rhythmic patterns. The extent of temporal integration was assessed on the basis of the number of beats being united and better performance corresponded to longer units. The novel results are differences between groups in this temporal integration. The HTE group integrated beats in significantly longer units than did the LTE group. Moreover, for tasks with higher mental load, the HTE group relied more on a constant time strategy, whereas the LTE group relied more on mental counting, probably because of less efficient temporal integration. These findings provide insight into associations between sub- and supra-second levels of processing and point to a common time keeping system, which is active independently of temporal domain., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Szelag, Stanczyk and Szymaszek.)

Aphasia is an acquired impairment of language functions resulting from a brain lesion. It is usually accompanied by deficits in non-linguistic cognitive processes. This study aimed to investigate in patients with aphasia the complex interrelationships between selected cognitive functions: auditory speech comprehension, working memory (WM), and temporal information processing (TIP) in the millisecond time range. Thirty right-handed subjects (20 males) aged from 27 to 82 years suffering from post-stroke aphasia participated in the study. Verbal working memory (VWM) and spatial working memory (SWM) were assessed with: (1) a receptive verbal test and (2) the Corsi Block-Tapping Test, respectively. Both these WM tests used the forward tasks (mainly engaging maintenance processes, i.e., storing, monitoring, and matching information) and backward tasks (engaging both maintenance and manipulation processes, i.e., reordering and updating information). Auditory comprehension was assessed by receptive language tests, and TIP efficiency was assessed by auditory perception of temporal order in the millisecond time range. We observed better performance of forward WM tasks than backward ones, independently of the type of material used. Furthermore, the severity of auditory comprehension impairment correlated with the efficiency on both forward and backward VWM tasks and the backward SWM task. Further analysis revealed that TIP plays a crucial role only in the latter task. These results indicate the divergent pattern of interactions between WM and TIP depending on the type of WM tasks. Level of verbal competency appeared to play an important role in both VWM tasks, whereas TIP (which is associated with manipulation processes) appeared to be important for SWM, but only on the backward task., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2020 Choinski, Szelag, Wolak and Szymaszek.)

Working memory (WM) is a limited-capacity cognitive system that allows the storage and use of a limited amount of information for a short period of time. Two WM processes can be distinguished: maintenance (i.e., storing, monitoring, and matching information) and manipulation (i.e., reordering and updating information). A number of studies have reported an age-related decline in WM, but the mechanisms underlying this deterioration need to be investigated. Previous research, including studies conducted in our laboratory, revealed that age-related cognitive deficits are related to decreased millisecond timing, i.e., the ability to perceive and organize incoming events in time. The aim of the current study was: (1) to identify in the elderly the brain network involved in the maintenance and manipulation WM processes; and (2) to use an fMRI task to investigate the relation between the brain activity associated with these two processes and the efficiency of temporal information processing (TIP) on a millisecond level reflected by psychophysical indices. Subjects were 41 normal healthy elderly people aged from 62 to 78 years. They performed: (1) an auditory verbal n -back task for assessing WM efficiency in an MRI scanner; and (2) a psychophysical auditory temporal-order judgment (TOJ) task for assessing temporal resolution in the millisecond domain outside the scanner. The n-back task comprised three conditions (0-, 1-, and 2-back), which allowed maintenance (1- vs. 0-back comparisons) and manipulation (2- vs. 1-back comparisons) processes to be distinguished. Results revealed the involvement of a similar brain network in the elderly to that found in previous studies. However, during maintenance processes, we found relatively limited and focused activations, which were significantly extended during manipulation. A novel result of our study, never reported before, is an indication of significant moderate correlations between the efficiency of WM and TIP. These correlations were found only for manipulation but not for maintenance. Our results confirmed the hypothesis that manipulation in the elderly is a dynamic process requiring skilled millisecond timing with high temporal resolution. We conclude that millisecond timing contributes to WM manipulation in the elderly, but not to maintenance., (Copyright © 2020 Jablonska, Piotrowska, Bednarek, Szymaszek, Marchewka, Wypych and Szelag.)

Using the Mismatch Negativity (MMN) paradigm we investigated for the first time cortical responses to consonant - vowel (CV) syllables differing in Voice-Onset-Time (VOT) for Polish, a member of the Slavic group of languages. The study aimed at testing age-related effects on different ERP responses in young (20-30 years of age) and elderly (60-68 years) native Polish speakers. Participants were presented with a sequence of voiced and voiceless stop CV syllables /to/ and /do/ with different VOT values (-100 ms, -70 ms, -30 ms, -20 ms, +20 ms, +50 ms). We analyzed MMN and P1, N1, N1', P2, N2 components. Our results showed an age-related decline in voicing perception in all tested ERP components. This decline could be explained in relation to a general slowing in neural processing with advancing age and may be associated with difficulties in temporal- and spectral-information processing in elderly people. Our findings revealed also that specific features of Slavic languages influence ERP morphology in a different way than reported in the literature for aspirating languages., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The Temporal-Order Judgment (TOJ) paradigm has been widely investigated in previous studies as an accurate measure of temporal resolution and sequencing abilities in the millisecond time range. Two auditory TOJ tasks are often used: (1) a spatial TOJ task, in which two identical stimuli are presented in rapid succession monaurally and the task is to indicate which ear received the first stimulus and which ear received the second one ( left-right or right-left ), and (2) a spectral TOJ task, in which two tones of different frequencies are presented asynchronously to both ears binaurally and the task is to report the sequence of these tones ( low-high or high-low ). The previous literature studies conducted on young volunteers indicated that the measured temporal acuity on these two tasks depended on the procedure used. As considerable data are now available about age-related decline in temporal resolution ability, the aim of the present study was to compare in elderly subjects the pattern of performance on these two tasks. A total of 40 normal healthy volunteers aged from 62 to 78 years performed two TOJ tasks. The measurement was repeated in two consecutive sessions. Temporal resolution was indexed by the Auditory Temporal-Order Threshold (ATOT), i.e., the minimum time gap between successive stimuli necessary for a participant to report a before-after relation with 75% correctness. The main finding of the present study was the indication of differences in the elderly in performance on two tasks. In the spatial task, the distribution of obtained ATOT values did not deviate from the Gaussian distribution. In contrast, the distribution of data in the spectral task deviated significantly from the Gaussian and was spread more to the right. Although lower ATOT values were usually observed in Session 2 than in Session 1, such difference was significant only in the spectral task. We conclude that although temporal acuity and sequencing abilities in the millisecond time range are probably based in neuronal oscillatory activity, the measured ATOTs in the elderly seem to be stimulus-dependent, procedure-related, and influenced by the perceptual strategies used by participants.

The brain's ability to recognize acoustic changes occurring in rapid temporal succession is important for speech and successful language development. Children with specific language impairment (SLI) are characterized by deficient dynamics of temporal information processing (TIP) in the millisecond time range accompanied by disordered language development. Furthermore, previous studies have found that intervention based on amelioration of TIP resulted in improvement of both language and other cognitive functions. This study aimed to explain the changes associated with TIP training from the perspective of event-related potentials (ERPs). Thirty-six children aged 5-8 years (26 boys, 10 girls) diagnosed with SLI underwent two types of intense audio-visual computer intervention: experimental TIP training targeted at the millisecond time range ( n = 18) or control non-TIP training ( n = 18). Paired 50 ms tones of 1000 Hz and 1200 Hz were presented with inter-stimulus intervals (ISIs) of either 50 ms (Short ISI Condition) or 200 ms (Long ISI Condition). Auditory ERPs were measured in a passive oddball paradigm before and after each type of training. The mismatch negativity (MMN) paradigm was applied as an electrophysiological indicator of the brain's ability to automatically detect violations of regularity in paired tones presented in rapid succession. Moreover, the P3a component was also analyzed. After 24 sessions of temporal training (in the experimental group) MMN amplitude enhancement was observed in both ISI conditions, reflecting increased efficiency in perceiving changes in rapid auditory sequences. In both experimental and control groups, P3a amplitude was enhanced in both ISIs. This may be due to the improvement of involuntary attention shifting to the auditory events involved in each training type. To conclude, temporal training, compared to non-temporal control training, improved the ability to detect changes in a rapid auditory stream in children with SLI.

Many studies revealed a link between temporal information processing (TIP) in a millisecond range and speech perception. Previous studies indicated a dysfunction in TIP accompanied by deficient phonemic hearing in children with specific language impairment (SLI). In this study we concentrate in SLI on phonetic identification, using the voice-onset-time (VOT) phenomenon in which TIP is built-in. VOT is crucial for speech perception, as stop consonants (like /t/ vs. /d/) may be distinguished by an acoustic difference in time between the onsets of the consonant (stop release burst) and the following vibration of vocal folds (voicing). In healthy subjects two categories (voiced and unvoiced) are determined using VOT task. The present study aimed at verifying whether children with SLI indicate a similar pattern of phonetic identification as their healthy peers and whether the intervention based on TIP results in improved performance on the VOT task. Children aged from 5 to 8 years ( n = 47) were assigned into two groups: normal children without any language disability (NC, n = 20), and children with SLI ( n = 27). In the latter group participants were randomly classified into two treatment subgroups, i.e., experimental temporal training (EG, n = 14) and control non-temporal training (CG, n = 13). The analyzed indicators of phonetic identification were: (1) the boundary location (α) determined as the VOT value corresponding to 50% voicing/unvoicing distinctions; (2) ranges of voiced/unvoiced categories; (3) the slope of identification curve (β) reflecting the identification correctness; (4) percent of voiced distinctions within the applied VOT spectrum. The results indicated similar α values and similar ranges of voiced/unvoiced categories between SLI and NC. However, β in SLI was significantly higher than that in NC. After the intervention, the significant improvement of β was observed only in EG. They achieved the level of performance comparable to that observed in NC. The training-related improvement in CG was non-significant. Furthermore, only in EG the β values in post-test correlated with measures of TIP as well as with phonemic hearing obtained in our previous studies. These findings provide another evidence that TIP is omnipresent in language communication and reflected not only in phonemic hearing but also in phonetic identification.

Experimental studies have reported a close association between temporal information processing (TIP) and language comprehension. Brain-injured subjects with aphasia show disturbed TIP which was evidenced in elevated temporal order threshold (TOT) as compared to control subjects. The present study is aimed at improving auditory speech comprehension in aphasic subjects using a specific temporal treatment. Fourteen patients having deficits in both speech comprehension and TIP were tested. The Token Test, phoneme discrimination tests (PDT) and Voice-Onset-Time (VOT) Test were employed to assess speech comprehension. The TOT was measured using two 10 ms tones (400 Hz, 3000 Hz) presented binaurally. The patients participated in eight 45-min sessions of either the specific temporal treatment ( n = 7) aimed at improving the perception of sequencing abilities, or in a non-temporal control treatment ( n = 7) on volume discrimination. The temporal treatment yielded an improvement in TIP. Moreover, a transfer of improvement from the time domain to the language domain was observed. The control treatment did not improve either TIP or speech comprehension in any of the applied tests.

The present study investigates age-related changes in duration discrimination in millisecond time domain. We tested young (N = 20, mean age = 24.5, SD = 2.97) and elderly (N = 20, mean age = 65.2, SD = 2.94) subjects using the mismatch negativity (MMN) paradigm. White-noise bursts of two different durations (50 and 10 ms) were presented in two oddball blocks. In one block (Increment Condition), the repetitive sequence of 10 ms standards was interspersed by occasional 50 ms deviants. In the Decrement Condition, the roles of the two stimuli were reversed. We analyzed the P1-N1 complex, MMN and P3a and found the effect of age for all these components. Moreover, the impact of stimulus presentation condition (increment/decrement) was observed for MMN and P3a. Our results confirmed the previous evidence for deteriorated duration discrimination in elderly people. Additionally, we found that this effect may be influenced by procedural factors.

A number of evidence revealed a link between temporal information processing (TIP) and language. Both literature data and results of our studies indicated an overlapping of deficient TIP and disordered language, pointing to the existence of an association between these two functions. On this background the new approach is to apply such knowledge in therapy of patients suffering from language disorders. In two studies we asked the following questions: (1) can the temporal training reduce language deficits in aphasic patients (Study 1) or in children with specific language impairment (SLI, Study 2)? (2) can such training ameliorate also the other cognitive functions? Each of these studies employed pre-training assessment, training application, post-training and follow-up assessment. In Study 1 we tested 28 patients suffering from post-stroke aphasia. They were assigned either to the temporal training (Group A, n = 15) in milliseconds range, or to the non-temporal training (Group B, n = 13). Following the training we found only in Group A improved TIP, accompanied by a transfer of improvement to language and working memory functions. In Study 2 we tested 32 children aged from 5 to 8 years, affected by SLI who were classified into the temporal training (Group A, n = 17) or non-temporal training (Group B, n = 15). Group A underwent the multileveled audio-visual computer training Dr. Neuronowski (®), recently developed in our laboratory. Group B performed the computer speech therapy exercises extended by playing computer games. Similarly as in Study 1, in Group A we found significant improvements of TIP, auditory comprehension and working memory. These results indicated benefits of temporal training for amelioration of language and other cognitive functions in both aphasic patients and children with SLI. The novel powerful therapy tools provide evidence for future promising clinical applications.

Background: Temporal information processing (TIP) underlies many aspects of cognitive functions like language, motor control, learning, memory, attention, etc. Millisecond timing may be assessed by sequencing abilities, e.g. the perception of event order. It may be measured with auditory temporal-order-threshold (TOT), i.e. a minimum time gap separating two successive stimuli necessary for a subject to report their temporal order correctly, thus the relation 'before-after'. Neuropsychological evidence has indicated elevated TOT values (corresponding to deteriorated time perception) in different clinical groups, such as aphasic patients, dyslexic subjects or children with specific language impairment., Aims: To test relationships between elevated TOT and declined cognitive functions in brain-injured patients suffering from post-stroke aphasia., Methods & Procedures: We tested 30 aphasic patients (13 male, 17 female), aged between 50 and 81 years. TIP comprised assessment of TOT. Auditory comprehension was assessed with the selected language tests, i.e. Token Test, Phoneme Discrimination Test (PDT) and Voice-Onset-Time Test (VOT), while two aspects of attentional resources (i.e. alertness and vigilance) were measured using the Test of Attentional Performance (TAP) battery., Outcomes & Results: Significant correlations were indicated between elevated values of TOT and deteriorated performance on all applied language tests. Moreover, significant correlations were evidenced between elevated TOT and alertness. Finally, positive correlations were found between particular language tests, i.e. (1) Token Test and PDT; (2) Token Test and VOT Test; and (3) PDT and VOT Test, as well as between PDT and both attentional tasks., Conclusions & Implications: These results provide further clinical evidence supporting the thesis that TIP constitutes the core process incorporated in both language and attentional resources. The novel value of the present study is the indication for the first time in Slavic language users a clear coexistence of the 'timing-auditory comprehension-attention' relationships., (© 2015 Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists.)

Experimental studies have often reported close associations between rapid auditory processing and language competency. The present study was aimed at improving auditory comprehension in aphasic patients following specific training in the perception of temporal order (TO) of events. We tested 18 aphasic patients showing both comprehension and TO perception deficits. Auditory comprehension was assessed by the Token Test, phonemic awareness and Voice-Onset-Time Test. The TO perception was assessed using auditory Temporal-Order-Threshold, defined as the shortest interval between two consecutive stimuli, necessary to report correctly their before-after relation. Aphasic patients participated in eight 45-minute sessions of either specific temporal training (TT, n=11) aimed to improve sequencing abilities, or control non-temporal training (NT, n=7) focussed on volume discrimination. The TT yielded improved TO perception; moreover, a transfer of improvement was observed from the time domain to the language domain, which was untrained during the training. The NT did not improve either the TO perception or comprehension in any language test. These results are in agreement with previous literature studies which proved ameliorated language competency following the TT in language-learning-impaired or dyslexic children. Our results indicated for the first time such benefits also in aphasic patients., (Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

It has been shown recently that temporal order perception is modulated by language environments. The present study focused on the specific question whether a secondary language experience influences temporal order perception by comparing the temporal order thresholds (TOTs) between Chinese subjects with and without a secondary non-tonal language (i.e., English) experience. Besides monaurally presented paired clicks, binaurally presented two different types of tone pairs were used in order to better capture a potential difference between tonal and non-tonal languages. The results showed a non-significant language effect on monaurally presented click TOTs, but a significant language effect for binaurally presented tone TOTs. Compared to click performance, Chinese subjects without English proficiency demonstrated a significantly lower TOT only for close frequency tone pairs, while Chinese subjects with English proficiency demonstrated lower TOTs for both close frequency and distant frequency tone pairs. These results confirm on the one hand a common and language independent temporal mechanism for perceiving the order of two monaurally presented stimuli, and indicate on the other hand specific mechanisms of neuronal plasticity for perceiving the order of frequency-related auditory stimuli for tonal language speakers with or without a secondary non-tonal language experience.

The close relationship between temporal perception and speech processing is well established. The present study focused on the specific question whether the speech environment could influence temporal order perception in subjects whose language backgrounds are distinctively different, i.e., Chinese (tonal language) vs. Polish (non-tonal language). Temporal order thresholds were measured for both monaurally presented clicks and binaurally presented tone pairs. Whereas the click experiment showed similar order thresholds for the two language groups, the experiment with tone pairs resulted in different observations: while Chinese demonstrated better performance in discriminating the temporal order of two "close frequency" tone pairs (600 Hz and 1200 Hz), Polish subjects showed a reversed pattern, i.e., better performance for "distant frequency" tone pairs (400 Hz and 3000 Hz). These results indicate on the one hand a common temporal mechanism for perceiving the order of two monaurally presented stimuli, and on the other hand neuronal plasticity for perceiving the order of frequency-related auditory stimuli. We conclude that the auditory brain is modified with respect to temporal processing by long-term exposure to a tonal or a non-tonal language. As a consequence of such an exposure different cognitive modes of operation (analytic vs. holistic) are selected: the analytic mode is adopted for "distant frequency" tone pairs in Chinese and for "close frequency" tone pairs in Polish subjects, whereas the holistic mode is selected for "close frequency" tone pairs in Chinese and for "distant frequency" tone pairs in Polish subjects, reflecting a double dissociation of function., (Copyright © 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

This study focuses on age-related differences concerning two kinds of spatial memory assessed by: (1) Paired Associates Learning (PAL) test from the CANTAB and (2) a test of Real Idiothetic Memory (RIM) using real-life settings. Despite a clear age-related drop in PAL that is reported in existing studies, age-related differences in idiothetic navigation still remain unclear. In our study we tested 80 healthy volunteers classified according to their age into two groups, i.e. young (aged from 20 to 29 years of life; n=40; 20M/20F) and elderly (from 64 to 77 years; n=40; 20M/20F) healthy volunteers. They were asked in the PAL test to remember the spatial location of visual patterns presented on a computer screen, and in the RIM test to walk on the arena in darkness in order to find a cue place and then to return to the start/exit point. A white noise was switched on at entering the cue place and switched off at leaving this place. Elderly subjects indicated poorer performance than their younger counterparts on the PAL test, as evidenced by all tested outcome measures. In contrast, for the RIM test no clear age effect was evidenced. In both tests no gender effect was observed. A dissociation in age-related changes for these two tests indicates that visuo-spatial associative learning and idiothetic navigation may have different cognitive control which is probably rooted in an interplay of different brain structures., (Copyright © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Purposes: The study sets the stage for temporal information processing as a fundamental basis of human cognition and a novel neurorehabilitation method. We focus on auditory perception of temporal order and address the following questions: (1) do subjects' age, gender, hearing status and cognitive functioning influence temporal ordering abilities; (2) are there any differences between Polish and German subjects on these abilities?, Methods: 86 Polish and 82 German subjects aged from 20 to 69 years were classified into 5 age groups. Subjects identified the order of two 1-ms clicks presented monaurally in rapid succession. The temporal order threshold (i.e. the minimum temporal gap required to report the stimulus order at 75% correctness) was assessed for each individual., Results: There were no differences between Polish and German subjects on temporal ordering. In both samples, a significant prolongation of temporal-order threshold was observed in subjects older than 60 years of age. Temporal processing was relatively resistant to subjects' hearing status, but it depended on cognitive competence. Thus, it is not chronological age as such but cognitive competence that may explain age-related decreases of temporal acuity. Furthermore, potential effects of age or gender are robust against the language background as no differences were observed between Polish and German subjects., Conclusions: We propose the existence of a neural mechanism underlying the perception of rapid changes in non-verbal acoustic features which constitute a frame for speech perception in many languages. This finding may be important with respect to future applications of temporal training in speech therapy programs designed for patients with receptive language disorders of different etiologies.

Background: Recovery of post-stroke deficits can be achieved by modulating neuroplasticity with non-invasive brain stimulation. To evaluate potential effects of repetitive transorbital alternating current stimulation (rtACS) on stroke recovery we carried out a randomized, drug-controlled clinical trial., Methods: Ninety-eight patients that had suffered ischemic stroke 21.4 months earlier were randomly assigned to either group D (n=30) receiving conventional drug therapy, group ACS (n=32) treated for 12 days with rtACS, or group D/ACS (n=36) receiving combined drug therapy/rtACS. Stroke severity level (SSL) was assessed by the NIH-NINDS stroke scale before and after treatment and at a 1-month follow-up to evaluate motor impairments (weakness, ataxia), sensory loss, visual field defects, and cortical deficits (aphasia, neglect). At each time point standard EEG recordings (10-20 system) were conducted., Results: Before therapy SSL was moderate (9.18 ± 0.78) without significant group difference (F =0.86, p=0.43). After 12 days of treatment, SSLs of groups ACS and D/ACS significantly improved by 22.5% and 25.1% over baseline, respectively, with no such change in the control group D (+3%). SSL improvements were mainly due to recovery of motor, sensory, and speech functions. After 1-month follow-up, an additional improvement of 9.7% and 9.4% was seen for the group ACS and D/ACS which led to a total change of +32.3% and +34.7% over baseline. EEG recordings revealed greater interhemispheric synchrony between both temporal lobes which were positively correlated with clinical outcome., Conclusions: Non-invasive rtACS applied to post-stroke patients can modulate brain plasticity and induce recovery from neurological deficits long after the early post lesion recovery is over.

Temporal-order judgements in the time range of some milliseconds were assessed by using two auditory tasks in 86 participants, aged from 20 to 69 years. Two stimulus presentation modes, binaural versus monaural, were compared. Elderly participants performed worse than the younger participants; however, different patterns of age-related declines were observed, depending on the presentation mode. In the monaural mode considerable deterioration was observed beyond 60 years of age, whereas in the binaural mode declines were found much earlier, from 40 years of age. Performance of the monaural task correlated with cognitive competences and provided important insight into neuronal timing mechanisms. In contrast, the binaural mode reflected a bias towards an integrated perception of sequential stimuli and was less related to cognitive resources. These findings provide evidence that age-related declines in human sequencing abilities involve, besides temporal mechanisms, also a mode-specific processing, presumably associated with different neuronal mechanisms.