ICBS Colloquium

The ability to tell time, anticipate future events, and produce spatiotemporal motor behaviors, are among the most fundamental computations the brain performs. Precisely because of the importance of time, we have proposed that timing is decentralized: depending on time scale, modality, and task, different brain areas underlie timing. I will present experimental and computational studies that reveal that on the scale of seconds the brain often relies on neural dynamics in the form of population clocks—including neural sequences—to encode time (among other dynamic regimes). Interestingly both timing and working memory (WM) share the requirement of transiently storing information for future use: prospective information in the case of timing and retrospective information in the case of WM. Additionally, some of the same neural signatures implicated in timing have also been implicated in working memory, and recent studies suggest a link between timing and WM. I will also present computational and psychophysical results supporting the hypothesis that in some cases the encoding time and WM can be multiplexed in neural trajectories such as neural sequences.

Zoom Link: https://berkeley.zoom.us/j/94063624390?pwd=c2s5eTBNZmtzZVR3OG55OHFCa1VPZz09