What areas of the brain allow us to sense the passage of time? In the traditional study of a sensory system, one identifies receptors that interface with the environment, then one traces dedicated pathways that extend both to subcortical and cortical domains. Can the same approach be applied to time perception, or is an interval (a moment, a 24-hour period, a season) the kind of experience that involves the coordination of environmental/veridical and internal/subjective perceptions? If a matter of coordination, how is it accomplished? Work in recent years has raised the possibility that multiple timers exist. What are they, and how have they been studied? Of interest to the clinician, distortions in time perception have been described in various neuropsychiatric disorders, including Parkinsonism, Huntington’s disease, schizophrenia, and autism. An errant neural substrate may serve as a trait marker for otherwise distinct diseases, including genetically determined ones, even before the manifestation of a characteristic phenotype.
Ascertaining natural periodicity, such as a day-night cycle, may not relate to events that transpire over an epoch far shorter than a day. Yet, in many species, circadian rhythmicity exhibits little variability (~1%), compared to that (up to 60% variance from the objective time) introduced in other estimations of temporal duration passage. We begin with the relatively precise circadian timing system because it provides a well-studied model for how environmental cues allow for synchronization both within the brain and body as a whole. Then we turn our attention to interval timing, as studied by those whose focus has centered, variously, on midbrain dopamine, striatal, cerebellar, and other subcortical areas. In the case of the nigrostriatal system, we address optogenetic study, which has revolutionized neuroscience, because it allows an investigator both to visualize and to modulate neuronal activity in real-time. Finally, we enlarge the special edition’s field of view to examine evidence from several neuropsychiatric and psychological disciplines that distributed cortical networks may be entrained in a cognition—rather than the simple perception—of time. The cognitive process/es involved may be vulnerable to disruptions that are being described in increasingly sophisticated ways. We are interested particularly in the relationship between time-perception and so-called default networks, the latter an important development in our functional understanding of how the brain works.
Thus, topic editors will welcome any types of manuscripts supported by the Journal – comprised of research article, brief research article, review, and mini-review – pertaining, but not limited to the following themes:
• The mammalian circadian timing system
• An evolutionary perspective on basal ganglia
• Subjective time perception, dopamine signaling, and Parkinsonian slowness
• Teaching signals in time perception
• Integrated models of interval timing and reinforcement learning
• The neurophysiology of temporal discrimination
• Cerebellum and somatosensory temporal discrimination
• Autism spectrum disorders and time perception
• Psychosis and time perception
• Time perception and default networks
What areas of the brain allow us to sense the passage of time? In the traditional study of a sensory system, one identifies receptors that interface with the environment, then one traces dedicated pathways that extend both to subcortical and cortical domains. Can the same approach be applied to time perception, or is an interval (a moment, a 24-hour period, a season) the kind of experience that involves the coordination of environmental/veridical and internal/subjective perceptions? If a matter of coordination, how is it accomplished? Work in recent years has raised the possibility that multiple timers exist. What are they, and how have they been studied? Of interest to the clinician, distortions in time perception have been described in various neuropsychiatric disorders, including Parkinsonism, Huntington’s disease, schizophrenia, and autism. An errant neural substrate may serve as a trait marker for otherwise distinct diseases, including genetically determined ones, even before the manifestation of a characteristic phenotype.
Ascertaining natural periodicity, such as a day-night cycle, may not relate to events that transpire over an epoch far shorter than a day. Yet, in many species, circadian rhythmicity exhibits little variability (~1%), compared to that (up to 60% variance from the objective time) introduced in other estimations of temporal duration passage. We begin with the relatively precise circadian timing system because it provides a well-studied model for how environmental cues allow for synchronization both within the brain and body as a whole. Then we turn our attention to interval timing, as studied by those whose focus has centered, variously, on midbrain dopamine, striatal, cerebellar, and other subcortical areas. In the case of the nigrostriatal system, we address optogenetic study, which has revolutionized neuroscience, because it allows an investigator both to visualize and to modulate neuronal activity in real-time. Finally, we enlarge the special edition’s field of view to examine evidence from several neuropsychiatric and psychological disciplines that distributed cortical networks may be entrained in a cognition—rather than the simple perception—of time. The cognitive process/es involved may be vulnerable to disruptions that are being described in increasingly sophisticated ways. We are interested particularly in the relationship between time-perception and so-called default networks, the latter an important development in our functional understanding of how the brain works.
Thus, topic editors will welcome any types of manuscripts supported by the Journal – comprised of research article, brief research article, review, and mini-review – pertaining, but not limited to the following themes:
• The mammalian circadian timing system
• An evolutionary perspective on basal ganglia
• Subjective time perception, dopamine signaling, and Parkinsonian slowness
• Teaching signals in time perception
• Integrated models of interval timing and reinforcement learning
• The neurophysiology of temporal discrimination
• Cerebellum and somatosensory temporal discrimination
• Autism spectrum disorders and time perception
• Psychosis and time perception
• Time perception and default networks
