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[The present in the brain].
1Department of Psychology, The University of Tokyo.
The brain represents the present through multiple perceptual timelines, processing visual information to create subjective experiences of time. These timelines, influenced by estimation and context, can lead to time illusions.
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Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Science
- Psychology
Context:
- Investigates the neural basis of time perception, focusing on the human visual system.
- Explores how visual information processing contributes to the conscious experience of spatio-temporal relations, object duration, and mental time.
- Discusses low-level neural mechanisms, including spatiotemporal receptive fields and biphasic temporal impulse response functions, for timing external events.
Purpose:
- To review theoretical and experimental issues concerning the representation of the present in the brain.
- To elucidate how visual primitives are reconstructed into perceptual timelines for conscious temporal experience.
- To examine the role of context, estimation, prediction, and postdiction in spatio-temporal localization and subjective time perception.
Summary:
- The brain constructs subjective present experiences via perceptual timelines, processing visual cues for spatio-temporal localization and duration.
- Neurons with specific receptive fields extract elementary spatial and temporal information, forming the basis of these timelines.
- Subjective aspects of time, like perceived timing and duration, arise from estimation processes, making them susceptible to illusions.
Impact:
- Highlights that multiple, potentially conflicting, perceptual timelines can coexist, serving as internal clocks for various objects and modalities.
- Addresses the challenge of timeline calibration and the brain's capacity for flexible recalibration using salient time markers.
- Provides insights into the neural underpinnings of time perception, subjective present, and the phenomenon of time illusion.

