时间知觉的脑机制:时钟模型的困境和新导向

Brain Mechanisms of Timing:Challenges to Internal Clock Model and New Approaches

长期以来人们认为神经系统是通过类似于时钟的方式来实现对一段时间的知觉的,并认为多巴胺能系统(基地神经节)和时钟的快慢有关。与多巴胺信号有关的药物的动物实验的结果以及帕金森氏症(parkinson’s disease)患者的行为表现被看作是支持以上看法的证据。然而,最近的大量研究对这个理论提出了挑战,结合行为研究和脑机制研究的新成果,研究者提出了知觉信息可以通过神经活动状态或加工中的能量消耗来表达。

People have thought internal clock to be the basis of interval timing for a long time, and believe that the dopaminergic system （e.g. basal ganglia） is specially related to the speed of the internal clock. Evidences for this model have been accumulated from neuropharmaeology studies and symptoms of patients suffered from the Parkinson＇s disease. Recently, this model is challenged by data from delicately designed behavioral experiments, micro-electrode recordings, and even re-analysis of results which support the internal clock model. Researchers have provided various new models to take place of the internal clock model, and two of them （the neural state model and the energy expended model） are most important and successful.