The neural basis of temporal processing.

Abstract in brief

• This text explains that understanding how the nervous system processes time in the range of tens to hundreds of milliseconds is essential for both simple sensory tasks and complex behaviors like speech and playing the piano, involving a distributed network rather than a single internal clock.
• It reviews evidence from behavioral, electrophysiological, and theoretical studies, suggesting that temporal processing is spread across multiple brain structures and does not depend on specialized, independent timing mechanisms.
• The authors propose that temporal and spatial processing are closely linked within neural networks, and timing may emerge from dynamic changes in these networks rather than from dedicated timing structures like delay lines or oscillators.]