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Neuropsychological mechanisms of interval timing behavior
Author(s) -
Matell Matthew S.,
Meck Warren H.
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
bioessays
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.175
H-Index - 184
eISSN - 1521-1878
pISSN - 0265-9247
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1521-1878(200001)22:1<94::aid-bies14>3.0.co;2-e
Subject(s) - interval (graph theory) , coincidence , coincidence detection in neurobiology , mechanism (biology) , neuroscience , neural activity , time perception , perspective (graphical) , neuropsychology , variety (cybernetics) , millisecond , neural system , biology , computer science , psychology , cognitive psychology , artificial intelligence , perception , medicine , cognition , mathematics , physics , pathology , alternative medicine , combinatorics , quantum mechanics , astronomy
Interval timing in the seconds‐to‐minutes range is believed to underlie a variety of complex behaviors in humans and other animals. One of the more interesting problems in interval timing is trying to understand how the brain times events lasting for minutes with millisecond‐based neural processes. Timing models proposing the use of coincidence‐detection mechanisms (e.g., the detection of simultaneous activity across multiple neural inputs) appear to be the most compatible with known neural mechanisms. From an evolutionary perspective, coincidence detection of neuronal activity may be a fundamental mechanism of timing that is expressed across a wide variety of species. BioEssays 22:94–103, 2000. ©2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.