pacemaker-accumulator
Neuroscience of Timing
This simulation implements the pacemaker-accumulator model of interval timing, based on research by Stanislas Dehaene and others in cognitive neuroscience.
Key Mechanisms:
- Pacemaker: Regular neural oscillations generate timing pulses
- Accumulator: Integrates pulses with leaky integration and noise
- Threshold: Decision boundary triggers timing responses
- Weber's Law: Timing variability scales with interval duration
- Multiple Scales: Fast and slow oscillations interact via coupling
The model captures how biological systems achieve precise timing despite noisy neural components, and explains phenomena like the scalar property of interval timing found across species.
Understanding Biological Timing
Weber's Law in Timing
A fundamental property of biological timing is that variability scales with duration - longer intervals are timed less precisely than shorter ones.
This "scalar property" emerges naturally from pacemaker-accumulator dynamics and is observed across species from insects to humans.
Neural Implementation
- • Striatum: Contains timing-sensitive neurons that may implement accumulation
- • Cortical Oscillations: Provide pacemaker signals at multiple frequencies
- • Cerebellar Circuits: Support precise sub-second timing mechanisms
- • Dopamine System: Modulates pacemaker speed and attention to time
Cross-Frequency Coupling
The simulation demonstrates how fast and slow neural oscillations interact to create complex timing behaviors. This cross-frequency coupling allows the brain to represent multiple temporal scales simultaneously, from milliseconds to minutes, enabling flexible timing across different contexts.
Applications
Understanding biological timing mechanisms has implications for neurodegenerative diseases (Parkinson's affects timing), cognitive development (timing deficits in ADHD), and artificial intelligence (implementing temporal cognition in neural networks).