Visual Cortex Encodes Timing Information in Humans and Mice

Abstract

Despite the importance of timing, our understanding is limited regarding how second-scale time perception is mediated in the human brain. Here we combined intracranial stereoelectroencephalography (SEEG) recordings in human subjects with circuit dissection in mice to show that visual cortex encodes timing information. We first performed an interval timing task in human subjects to identify visual cortex (V1) as a key timing brain area. We then conducted optogenetic experiments in mice to show that visual cortex is necessary for interval timing behavior. Consistent with this possibility, V1 neurons fire in a time-keeping sequential manner and exhibited an increased excitability in timed manner. We used a computational model to illustrate a self-correcting learning process that generates interval-timed activities with scalar-timing variability. Our work reveals how localized oscillations in the visual cortex encode timing information in the external world to guide behavior.