The retrospective data used for this analysis consisted of both shock trials and tone trials.
Participants received auditory feedback after each trial (low tone = correct, high tone = incorrect).
In a change from Cartwright-Finch and Lavie's design, however, in the last experimental trial a tone was presented, and participants were asked whether they had noticed the tone.
In our current trial, parasympathetic tone significant increased following 6-months of exercise training at 8-KKW and 12-KKW.
One possible reason is that the rats additionally had to wait for the trial start tone at around the home-base circle for both the immediate and delayed conditions, which might contribute to extended 5-HT activity in both conditions.
In the remaining 25% of trials, no tone was presented.
Within each 120-trial block, tone type, repetition type, and order were counterbalanced.
We focussed on subjective time in "action only" trials vs. "action + tone" trials in which event timing was identical in "fixed outcome timing" and "variable outcome timing" blocks, i.e., on "action + tone" trials with an action – outcome delay of 250 ms.
However, our key finding is an enhancement of action binding in "variable outcome timing" blocks from "action only" trials to "action + tone" trials, i.e., a clear retrospective process that follows outcome presentation.
The stimuli consisted of 200 trials of tone-button press pairings; 100 tones per ear, which were presented randomly through plastic tubes and earphones.
