Cognition of Time and Thinking Beyond.

Abstract

A common research protocol in cognitive neuroscience is to train subjects to perform deliberately designed experiments while recording brain activity, with the aim of understanding the brain mechanisms underlying cognition. However, how the results of this protocol of research can be applied in technology is seldom discussed. Here, I review the studies on time processing of the brain as examples of this research protocol, as well as two main application areas of neuroscience (neuroengineering and brain-inspired artificial intelligence). Time processing is a fundamental dimension of cognition, and time is also an indispensable dimension of any real-world signal to be processed in technology. Therefore, one may expect that the studies of time processing in cognition profoundly influence brain-related technology. Surprisingly, I found that the results from cognitive studies on timing processing are hardly helpful in solving practical problems. This awkward situation may be due to the lack of generalizability of the results of cognitive studies, which are under well-controlled laboratory conditions, to real-life situations. This lack of generalizability may be rooted in the fundamental unknowability of the world (including cognition). Overall, this paper questions and criticizes the usefulness and prospect of the abovementioned research protocol of cognitive neuroscience. I then give three suggestions for future research. First, to improve the generalizability of research, it is better to study brain activity under real-life conditions instead of in well-controlled laboratory experiments. Second, to overcome the unknowability of the world, we can engineer an easily accessible surrogate of the object under investigation, so that we can predict the behavior of the object under investigation by experimenting on the surrogate. Third, the paper calls for technology-oriented research, with the aim of technology creation instead of knowledge discovery.