Mauk Michael D, Buonomano Dean V
Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy, University of Texas, Houston Medical School, Houston, Texas 77030, USA.
Annu Rev Neurosci. 2004;27:307-40. doi: 10.1146/annurev.neuro.27.070203.144247.
A complete understanding of sensory and motor processing requires characterization of how the nervous system processes time in the range of tens to hundreds of milliseconds (ms). Temporal processing on this scale is required for simple sensory problems, such as interval, duration, and motion discrimination, as well as complex forms of sensory processing, such as speech recognition. Timing is also required for a wide range of motor tasks from eyelid conditioning to playing the piano. Here we review the behavioral, electrophysiological, and theoretical literature on the neural basis of temporal processing. These data suggest that temporal processing is likely to be distributed among different structures, rather than relying on a centralized timing area, as has been suggested in internal clock models. We also discuss whether temporal processing relies on specialized neural mechanisms, which perform temporal computations independent of spatial ones. We suggest that, given the intricate link between temporal and spatial information in most sensory and motor tasks, timing and spatial processing are intrinsic properties of neural function, and specialized timing mechanisms such as delay lines, oscillators, or a spectrum of different time constants are not required. Rather temporal processing may rely on state-dependent changes in network dynamics.
对感觉和运动处理的全面理解需要表征神经系统如何在数十到数百毫秒（ms）的时间范围内处理时间。这种时间尺度上的时间处理对于简单的感觉问题（如间隔、持续时间和运动辨别）以及复杂的感觉处理形式（如语音识别）都是必需的。从眼睑条件反射到弹钢琴等广泛的运动任务也需要时间控制。在这里，我们回顾了关于时间处理神经基础的行为、电生理和理论文献。这些数据表明，时间处理可能分布在不同的结构中，而不是像内部时钟模型所暗示的那样依赖于一个集中的计时区域。我们还讨论了时间处理是否依赖于专门的神经机制，这些机制独立于空间机制进行时间计算。我们认为，鉴于大多数感觉和运动任务中时间和空间信息之间的复杂联系，时间控制和空间处理是神经功能的内在属性，不需要诸如延迟线、振荡器或一系列不同时间常数等专门的计时机制。相反，时间处理可能依赖于网络动力学中状态依赖的变化。
