A larger study on 32 participants between 10 and 53 years found that despite no significant age effects on time discrimination task performance (although children were slightly more inaccurate), there were significant linear age correlations in typical regions of time estimation such as left DLPFC and IFC, insula, striatal and superior parietal areas [31] (Fig. 2a). Striatal activation in particular correlated positively with both age and time discrimination performance, in line with a pivotal role for the striatum in temporal perception [58, 59]. Furthermore, adults compared to children and adolescents showed significantly enhanced functional connectivity, as tested using correlational connectivity analyses of the time-courses of activation of seed regions, between left and right fronto-striatal activation and between right frontal and parietal activations. Progressively decreased activation with age was observed within midline paralimbic areas such as ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), anterior and posterior cingulate and cerebellum, suggesting age-dependent developmentally dissociated neural networks for time discrimination, with children relying more on earlier developing limbic and cerebellar regions, and adults shifting towards increased activation and better functional inter-regional connectivity in more specialised left-hemispheric lateral fronto-striatal and fronto-parietal activation [31].
