Abstract
A complete understanding of sensory and motor processing requires
characterization of how the nervous system processes time in the
range of tens to hundreds of milliseconds (ms). Temporal processing
on this scale is required for simple sensory problems, such as interval,
duration, and motion discrimination, as well as complex forms of
sensory processing, such as speech recognition. Timing is also required
for a wide range of motor tasks from eyelid conditioning to playing
the piano. Here we review the behavioral, electrophysiological, and
theoretical literature on the neural basis of temporal processing.
These data suggest that temporal processing is likely to be distributed
among different structures, rather than relying on a centralized
timing area, as has been suggested in internal clock models. We also
discuss whether temporal processing relies on specialized neural
mechanisms, which perform temporal computations independent of spatial
ones. We suggest that, given the intricate link between temporal
and spatial information in most sensory and motor tasks, timing and
spatial processing are intrinsic properties of neural function, and
specialized timing mechanisms such as delay lines, oscillators, or
a spectrum of different time constants are not required. Rather temporal
processing may rely on state-dependent changes in network dynamics.
Users
Please
log in to take part in the discussion (add own reviews or comments).