RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Time without clocks: Human time perception based on perceptual classification
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 172387
DO 10.1101/172387
A1 Warrick Roseboom
A1 Zafeirios Fountas
A1 Kyriacos Nikiforou
A1 David Bhowmik
A1 Murray Shanahan
A1 Anil K. Seth
YR 2018
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/03/06/172387.abstract
AB Despite being a fundamental dimension of experience, how the human brain generates the perception of time remains unknown. Here, we provide a novel explanation for how human time perception might be accomplished, based on non-temporal perceptual clas-sification processes. To demonstrate this proposal, we built an artificial neural system centred on a feed-forward image classification network, functionally similar to human visual processing. In this system, input videos of natural scenes drive changes in network activation, and accumulation of salient changes in activation are used to estimate duration. Estimates produced by this system match human reports made about the same videos, replicating key qualitative biases, including differentiating between scenes of walking around a busy city or sitting in a cafe or office. Our approach provides a working model of duration perception from stimulus to estimation and presents a new direction for examining the foundations of this central aspect of human experience.