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The inner sense of time: how the brain creates a representation of duration

Nature Reviews Neuroscience volume 14, pages 217–223 (2013)Cite this article

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Abstract

A large number of competing models exist for how the brain creates a representation of time. However, several human and animal studies point to 'climbing neural activation' as a potential neural mechanism for the representation of duration. Neurophysiological recordings in animals have revealed how climbing neural activation that peaks at the end of a timed interval underlies the processing of duration, and, in humans, climbing neural activity in the insular cortex, which is associated with feeling states of the body and emotions, may be related to the cumulative representation of time.

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Figure 1: The dual klepsydra model.
Figure 2: Mean cardiac periods during interval timing.

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Acknowledgements

The author is grateful to J. Wackermann and K. Meissner for comments on earlier versions of the manuscript and wishes to thank the three anonymous reviewers whose criticism and suggestions helped to improve the final version of the paper. Over the years, the author's research has been supported by the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (Bonn/Berlin), the Else-Kröner-Fresenius Foundation (Bad Homburg), the Max Kade Foundation (New York), the National Institute on Drug Abuse (Bethesda) and the Kavli Institute for Brain and Mind (San Diego). The author has also been supported by the European project COST ISCH Action TD0904 “Time In MEntaL activitY: theoretical, behavioral, bioimaging and clinical perspectives” (TIMELY).

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  1. Department of Empirical and Analytical Psychophysics, Marc Wittmann is at the Institute for Frontier Areas of Psychology and Mental Health, Wilhelmstr. 3a, 79098 Freiburg, Germany. wittmann@igpp.de,

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Wittmann, M. The inner sense of time: how the brain creates a representation of duration. Nat Rev Neurosci 14, 217–223 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn3452

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