Aramis D. M. Valverde
J.D. 1L Candidate at American University Washington College of Law
M.A. in Bioethics Candidate at New York University
M.S. in Cognitive and Information Sciences, University of California Merced
The study of time consciousness has long been fraught with conceptual ambiguities, a lack of firm empirical foundations, and a lack of consensus on key terminology. Persistent challenges in aligning philosophical theories with neuroscientific data have hindered progress towards a comprehensive understanding of how we perceive and process the passage of time.
This presentation seeks to help address these issues by investigating the neurocomputational underpinnings of temporal perception through two specific models. First, I analyze a model of striatal duration evaluation mechanisms in mice, using this as a basis to understand the neural computations central to temporal discrimination tasks and encoding time intervals. Second, I present a theoretical model closely related to the striatal model that could govern the perception and judgement of the rate of time's passage in humans. It explores the interplay between cognitive and neurological factors in shaping the subjective experience of time's flow. This model is particularly concerned with uncovering the mechanisms that might account for variations in the perceived speed of time under various conditions, offering insights into the phenomenal perception of time's passage in humans.
Key to this approach is the adoption of a function-first framework, made possible by recent advances in experimental neuroscience. This framework not only redefines and operationalizes existing notions in time-consciousness in a more empirical and systematic manner, but it also enriches the conceptual discourse on consciousness. This methodology aligns conceptual theories with empirical neuroscientific research, offering a grounded perspective in the ongoing discourse on time-consciousness and establishing a concrete precedent for future inquiries into the neural underpinnings of human perception.
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Gouvêa, T. S., Monteiro, T., Motiwala, A., Soares, S., Machens, C., & Paton, J. J. (2015). Striatal dynamics explain duration judgments. eLife, 4:e11386. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.11386
Redinbaugh, M. J., & Saalmann, Y. B. (2024). Contributions of Basal Ganglia Circuits to Perception, Attention, and Consciousness. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 36(8), 1620–1642. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn_a_02177