Scripts

The objective of this study is part of a wider questioning on the mechanisms allowing us to follow information in time, and especially the role of the processing at the level of milliseconds. More specifically we explore how processing at the level of milliseconds is coupled with processing at longer timescales, how it affects consciousness, and how it can be modulated. The present study is original in several respects. First we use a newly found illusion based on two squares moving towards each other. The illusion (the perception of a space at the time of the collision) is based on the regularity of the squares trajectory (Jovanovic et al, 2023). In this study, we added a sub-threshold manipulation of the trajectory and showed this to clearly affect the illusion, which reinforces our interpretation of the illusion, and provides a tool to study the coupling of mechanisms at different timescales. The second originality is the use of transcranial magnetic stimulation on the CRUSI/II of the cerebellum. Despite a very short and mild-intensity stimulation, transcranial magnetic stimulation affects electroencephalographic signals associated to the trajectory manipulation. The latter results are observed in a sub-set of the data and require confirmation. We think they are nonetheless important, as they represent a hope for pathologies, especially psychiatric conditions, where alterations in temporal prediction have been proposed to play a role.