Abstract
Time is an important dimension of brain function, but little is yet known about the underlying cognitive principles and neurobiological mechanisms. The field of timing and time perception has witnessed tremendous growth and multidisciplinary interest in the recent years with the advent of modern neuroimaging and neurophysiological approaches. In this article, I used a data mining approach to analyze the timing literature published by a select group of researchers (n = 202) during the period 2000–2015 and highlight important reviews as well as empirical articles that meet the criterion of a minimum of 100 citations. The qualifying articles (n = 150) are listed in a table along with key details such as number of citations, names of authors, year and journal of publication as well as a short summary of the findings of each study. The results of such a data-driven approach to literature review not only serve as a useful resource to any researcher interested in timing, but also provides a means to evaluate key papers that have significantly influenced the field and summarize recent progress and popular research trends in the field. Additionally, such analyses provides food for thought about future scientific directions and raises important questions about improving organizational structures to boost open science and progress in the field. I discuss exciting avenues for future research that have the potential to significantly advance our understanding of the neurobiology of timing, and propose the establishment of a new society, the Timing Research Forum, to promote open science and collaborative work within the highly diverse and multidisciplinary community of researchers in the field of timing and time perception.
Highlights
Natural sounds have a rich temporal structure, in the form of sequences of sounds that rapidly change over time and result in dynamic states of perceptual organization
Braitenberg (1967) proposed the cerebellum as an internal timekeeper and hypothesized that parallel fibers act as delay lines and provide a means to represent temporal patterns
Many of these reviews are “classic” in the field, even the most recent article in the table is a review (Merchant et al, 2013a; 184 citations). This suggests that either the field is still in an embryonic stage where review articles by established researchers are needed to set the precedent on certain topics, or that the field of timing is too diverse, and represents the intersection of various sub-fields including time perception, rhythm perception, music perception, temporal coding, inter sensory asynchrony, motor timing and coordination, that is reflected in the diversity of topics covered by the review articles
Summary
Natural sounds have a rich temporal structure, in the form of sequences of sounds that rapidly change over time and result in dynamic states of perceptual organization. This suggests that either the field is still in an embryonic stage where review articles by established researchers are needed to set the precedent on certain topics, or that the field of timing is too diverse, and represents the intersection of various sub-fields including time perception, rhythm perception, music perception, temporal coding, inter sensory asynchrony, motor timing and coordination, that is reflected in the diversity of topics covered by the review articles.
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