Time perception
To understand the neural mechanisms of time perception, we combine psychophysical, behavioral, and computational approaches to address the relationship between the timing of perception and the timing of neural signals. We are currently engaged in experiments that explore temporal encoding, time warping, manipulations of the perception of causality, time perception in schizophrenia, and time perception in high-adrenaline situations. We use this data to explore how neural signals processed by different brain regions come together for a temporally unified picture of the world.
- For more about our time research, see coverage by Popular Science magazine, Los Angeles Times, Discovery Channel, PBS, BBC radio, or Discover Magazine. For extra credit in the time domain, do all six at once.
For a popular-science essay that lays out the mysteries of time perception, see my essay Brain Time (published in What's Next? Dispatches on the Future of Science. M. Brockman, Ed).
For a more detailed explanation of the how and why of our scientific approach, see our experimental questions.
From the Blog
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Discussing dreaming with Henry Rollins
I spent an evening speaking at the Rubin Museum in NYC with punk rock legend, writer, and spoken word artist Henry Rollins. We discussed the origin, meaning, neuroscience, and bizarreness of dreams.
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A new map of the human brain
New paper in Nature describes the most highly detailed map of the human cortex so far.
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Silicon Immortality: Downloading Consciousness into Computers
Well before we understand how brains work, we may find ourselves able to digitally copy the brain's structure and able to download the conscious mind into a computer. What are the possibilities and challenges?
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Why I am a Possibilian
Our ignorance of the cosmos is too vast to commit to atheism, and yet we know too much to commit to a particular religion. A third position, agnosticism, is often an uninteresting stance in which a person simply questions whether his traditional religious story is true or not true. I call myself a possibilian. Find out why.
