Time is fundamental to physical events, of course, and the activities of the brain are no exception. Even for stimulus that may seem constant, such as the frequency of a note, timing activities are needed to process the sensory message. But is our ability to judge intervals of time making use of the same mechanisms that processes the sensory message itself?

The present study found that transcranial magnetic stimulation, when applied to superior temporal gyri, was able to impair judgment of time intervals without affecting frequency discrimination. The results are interpreted as providing support of modality specific temporal regions in the brain.