The time perception mechanism in anticipatory timing control was investigated in synchronization tapping task. Especially negative asynchrony phenomenon that the tap onset precedes the stimulus onset was used as an example of anticipatory response. In this experiment, to clarify the effects of higher brain function such as attention and working memory, dual task method was applied and word memory task was used as a secondary task. The results revealed the presence of two types of anticipatory mechanisms from the standpoint of attentional resources involved in time perception. One is the anticipatory tapping that is influenced by attention of subject and seen in the interstimulus-onset interval (ISI) range of 2400 to 3600 ms. In this region, the magnitude of synchronization error (SE) between tap onset and stimulus onset was scaled by the ISI. The other is the automatic anticipation that is not affected by attention and is seen in the 450 to 1800 ms range. SE in this region was constant and independent of the ISI. Accordingly, this anticipatory timing mechanism in synchronous tapping is thought to be a dual process including the explicit processing of the temporal information and the implicit automatic anticipation.
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