There has been a recent surge of research examining how the visual system compresses information by representing the average properties of sets of similar objects to circumvent strict capacity limitations. Efficient representation by perceptual averaging helps to maintain the balance between the needs to perceive salient events in the surrounding environment and sustain the illusion of stable and complete perception. Whereas there have been many demonstrations that the visual system encodes spatial average properties, such as average orientation, average size, and average numerosity along single dimensions, there has been no investigation of whether the fundamental nature of average representations extends to the temporal domain. Here, we used an adaptation paradigm to demonstrate that the average duration of a set of sequentially presented stimuli negatively biases the perceived duration of subsequently presented information. This negative adaptation aftereffect is indicative of a fundamental visual property, providing the first evidence that average duration is encoded along a single visual dimension. Our results not only have important implications for how the visual system efficiently encodes redundant information to evaluate salient events as they unfold within the dynamic context of the surrounding environment, but also contribute to the long-standing debate regarding the neural underpinnings of temporal encoding.

最近出现了大量研究，研究视觉系统如何通过表示相似对象集的平均属性来绕过严格的容量限制来压缩信息。通过知觉平均的有效表征有助于维持感知周围环境中显着事件的需要与维持稳定和完整感知的错觉之间的平衡。虽然已经有很多证据表明视觉系统编码空间平均属性，例如沿单个维度的平均方向、平均大小和平均数量，但没有研究平均表示的基本性质是否扩展到时间域。这里，我们使用了一种适应范式来证明一组顺序呈现的刺激的平均持续时间会对随后呈现的信息的感知持续时间产生负面影响。这种负面适应后遗症表明了基本的视觉特性，提供了平均持续时间沿单个视觉维度编码的第一个证据。我们的结果不仅对视觉系统如何有效地编码冗余信息以评估在周围环境的动态上下文中展开的显着事件具有重要意义，而且还有助于关于时间编码的神经基础的长期争论。这种负面适应后遗症表明了基本的视觉特性，提供了平均持续时间沿单个视觉维度编码的第一个证据。我们的结果不仅对视觉系统如何有效地编码冗余信息以评估在周围环境的动态上下文中展开的显着事件具有重要意义，而且还有助于关于时间编码的神经基础的长期争论。这种负面适应后遗症表明了基本的视觉特性，提供了平均持续时间沿单个视觉维度编码的第一个证据。我们的结果不仅对视觉系统如何有效地编码冗余信息以评估在周围环境的动态上下文中展开的显着事件具有重要意义，而且还有助于关于时间编码的神经基础的长期争论。