Dean Buonomano, Ph.D.
Professor
Departments of Neurobiology and Psychology
University of California, Los Angeles
Abstract: The ability to tell time, anticipate future events, and produce accurately timed motor behaviors, are among the most fundamental computations the brain performs. Speech and music perception, for example, provide sophisticated examples of temporal processing as they require the ability to parse the order, duration, and the global temporal structure of complex stimuli. Precisely because of the importance of time and timing to brain function, we have proposed that timing on the scale of seconds is a general property of neocortical circuits. I will present experimental and computational studies that suggest that the ability to tell time relies on the inherent dynamics of neural circuits in the form of neural population clocks. To test the hypothesis that neocortical circuits are intrinsically capable of temporal processing we have shown that cortical circuits in a dish can learn temporal patterns and generate timed predictions. Finally, I will present experimental and computational studies suggesting a relationship between timing and working memory, and their potential reliance on the same neural representations.