Question: Published reports indicate that a brain region called the nucleus accumbens (NAC) is involved in interval timing, which is the perception of time in the seconds-to-minutes range. To test this, researchers investigated whether removing the NAC interferes with rats ability to time the presentation of a liquid reward. Using a conditioning procedure, the researchers had rats press a lever for a reward that was delivered after 16 seconds. The time that eight rats responded the most (peak responding) was recorded before and after a surgery to remove the NAC. The peak responding times are given in table.
