Role of the prefrontal cortex in the foreperiod effect: TMS evidence for dual mechanisms in temporal preparation

The involvement of right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (rDLPFC) in explicit temporal processing is well documented. Conversely, the role of this area in implicit temporal processing (e.g., foreperiod [FP] effect) is still poorly understood. The FP effect, usually observed when a range of variable FPs occur randomly and equiprobably, consists of reaction times (RTs) decreasing as the FP increases. Moreover, in such paradigms, RTs increase as a function of the preceding FP (i.e., sequential effects). Patients with lesions of the rDLPFC do not show the typical FP effect. The present study aimed to replicate these results in healthy adults using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and to further investigate whether any change of sequential effects follows a reduction of the FP effect. The results of 2 experiments (with simple and choice RT tasks, respectively) indicate that the FP effect was significantly reduced after TMS over the rDLPFC, whereas no effect was observed after stimulation of a left contralateral site and the right angular gyrus. Conversely, sequential effects were not influenced by TMS. A dual-process model of the FP phenomena is proposed to interpret the dissociation found between the 2 effects.