Perceiving the temporal regularity in a sequence of repetitive sensory events facilitates the preparation and execution of relevant behaviors with tight temporal constraints. How we estimate temporal regularity from repeating patterns of sensory stimuli is not completely understood. We developed a decision-making task in which participants had to decide whether a train of visual, auditory, or tactile pulses, had a regular or an irregular temporal pattern. We tested the hypothesis that subjects categorize stimuli as irregular by accumulating the time differences between the predicted and observed times of sensory pulses defining a temporal rhythm. Results suggest that instead of waiting for a single large temporal deviation, participants accumulate timing-error signals and judge a pattern as irregular when the amount of evidence reaches a decision threshold. Model fits of bounded integration showed that this accumulation occurs with negligible leak of evidence. Consistent with previous findings, we show that participants perform better when evaluating the regularity of auditory pulses, as compared with visual or tactile stimuli. Our results suggest that temporal regularity is estimated by comparing expected and measured pulse onset times, and that each prediction error is accumulated towards a threshold to generate a behavioral choice.

在一系列重复的感官事件中感知时间规律性有助于在时间紧迫的情况下准备和执行相关行为。我们如何从重复的感觉刺激模式估计时间规律尚不完全清楚。我们制定了一项决策任务，参与者必须决定一连串的视觉，听觉或触觉脉冲是否具有规则或不规则的时间模式。我们通过累积定义时间节律的感觉脉冲的预测时间与观察时间之间的时间差，检验了受试者将刺激分类为不规则的假设。结果表明，与其等待一个大的时间偏差，不如等待 参与者积累计时误差信号，并在证据量达到决策阈值时将模式判断为不规则。有界积分的模型拟合表明，这种积累发生的证据泄漏可忽略不计。与以前的发现一致，我们表明与视觉或触觉刺激相比，参与者在评估听觉脉冲的规律性时表现更好。我们的结果表明，通过比较预期的脉冲实测时间和测量的脉冲实测时间来估计时间规律性，并且每个预测误差都朝着阈值累积以生成行为选择。我们显示，与视觉或触觉刺激相比，参与者在评估听觉脉冲的规律性时表现更好。我们的结果表明，通过比较预期的脉冲实测时间和测量的脉冲实测时间来估计时间规律性，并且每个预测误差都朝着阈值累积以生成行为选择。我们显示，与视觉或触觉刺激相比，参与者在评估听觉脉冲的规律性时表现更好。我们的结果表明，通过比较预期的脉冲实测时间和测量的脉冲实测时间来估计时间规律性，并且每个预测误差都朝着阈值累积以生成行为选择。