This book constitutes the documentation of the scientific outcome of the first meeting of the TIMELY network, the International Workshop on Multidisciplinary Aspects of Time and Time Perception, which took place in Athens, Greece, in October 2010. The 21 papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected for inclusion in the book. They cover the following topics: conceptual analysis and measurement of time; exploring factors associated with time perception variability; extending time research to ecologically-valid stimuli and real-world applications; and uncovering the neural correlates of time perception.

This book constitutes the documentation of the scientific outcome of the first meeting of the TIMELY network, the International Workshop on Multidisciplinary Aspects of Time and Time Perception, which took place in Athens, Greece, in October 2010. The 21 papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected for inclusion in the book. They cover the following topics: conceptual analysis and measurement of time; exploring factors associated with time perception variability; extending time research to ecologically-valid stimuli and real-world applications; and uncovering the neural correlates of time perception.

Timing and Time Perception: Procedures, Measures, and Applications is a one-of-a-kind, collective effort to present the most utilized and known methods on timing and time perception. Specifically, it covers methods and analysis on circadian timing, synchrony perception, reaction/response time, time estimation, and alternative methods for clinical/developmental research. The book includes experimental protocols, programming code, and sample results and the content ranges from very introductory to more advanced so as to cover the needs of both junior and senior researchers. We hope that this will be the first step in future efforts to document experimental methods and analysis both in a theoretical and in a practical manner. Contributors are: Patricia V. Agostino, Rocío Alcalá-Quintana, Fuat Balcı, Karin Bausenhart, Richard Block, Ivana L. Bussi, Carlos S. Caldart, Mariagrazia Capizzi, Xiaoqin Chen, Ángel Correa, Massimiliano Di Luca, Céline Z. Duval, Mark T. Elliott, Dagmar Fraser, David Freestone, Miguel A. García-Pérez, Anne Giersch, Simon Grondin, Nori Jacoby, Florian Klapproth, Franziska Kopp, Maria Kostaki, Laurence Lalanne, Giovanna Mioni, Trevor B. Penney, Patrick E. Poncelet, Patrick Simen, Ryan Stables, Rolf Ulrich, Argiro Vatakis, Dominic Ward, Alan M. Wing, Kieran Yarrow, and Dan Zakay.

Optimized interaction of the brain with environment requires the four-dimensional representation of space-time in the neuronal circuits. Information processing is an important part of this interaction, which is critically dependent on time-dimension. Information processing has played an important role in the evolution of mammals, and has reached a level of critical importance in the lives of primates, particularly the humans. The entanglement of time-dimension with information processing in the brain is not clearly understood at present. Time-dimension in physical world – the environment of an organism – can be represented by the interval of a pendulum swing (the cover page depicts temporal unit with the help of a swinging pendulum). Temporal units in neural processes are represented by regular activities of pacemaker neurons, tonic regular activities of proprioceptors and periodic fluctuations in the excitability of neurons underlying brain oscillations. Moreover, temporal units may be representationally associated with time-bins containing bits of information (see the Editorial), which may be studied to understand the entanglement of time-dimension with neural information processing. The optimized interaction of the brain with environment requires the calibration of neural temporal units. Neural temporal units are calibrated as a result of feedback processes occurring during the interaction of an organism with environment. Understanding the role of time-dimension in the brain information processing requires a multidisciplinary approach, which would include psychophysics, single cell studies and brain recordings. Although this Special Issue has helped us move forward on some fronts, including theoretical understanding of calibration of time-information in neural circuits, and the role of brain oscillations in timing functions and integration of asynchronous sensory information, further advancements are needed by developing correct computational tools to resolve the relationship between dynamic, hierarchical neural oscillatory structures that form during the brain’s interaction with environment.

How does music manifest through time and, simultaneously, how does time manifest through music?

The essential reference for human development theory, updated and reconceptualized The Handbook of Child Psychology and Developmental Science, a four-volume reference, is the field-defining work to which all others are compared. First published in 1946, and now in its Seventh Edition, the Handbook has long been considered the definitive guide to the field of developmental science. Volume 2: Cognitive Processes describes cognitive development as a relational phenomenon that can be studied only as part of a larger whole of the person and context relational system that sustains it. In this volume, specific domains of cognitive development are contextualized with respect to biological processes and sociocultural contexts. Furthermore, key themes and issues (e.g., the importance of symbolic systems and social understanding) are threaded across multiple chapters, although every each chapter is focused on a different domain within cognitive development. Thus, both within and across chapters, the complexity and interconnectivity of cognitive development are well illuminated. Learn about the inextricable intertwining of perceptual development, motor development, emotional development, and brain development Understand the complexity of cognitive development without misleading simplification, reducing cognitive development to its biological substrates, or viewing it as a passive socialization process Discover how each portion of the developmental process contributes to subsequent cognitive development Examine the multiple processes – such as categorizing, reasoning, thinking, decision making and judgment – that comprise cognition The scholarship within this volume and, as well, across the four volumes of this edition, illustrate that developmental science is in the midst of a very exciting period. There is a paradigm shift that involves increasingly greater understanding of how to describe, explain, and optimize the course of human life for diverse individuals living within diverse contexts. This Handbook is the definitive reference for educators, policy-makers, researchers, students, and practitioners in human development, psychology, sociology, anthropology, and neuroscience.

The study of how the brain processes temporal information is becoming one of the most important topics in systems, cellular, computational, and cognitive neuroscience, as well as in the physiological bases of music and language. During the last and current decade, interval timing has been intensively studied in humans and animals using increasingly sophisticated methodological approaches. The present book will bring together the latest information gathered from this exciting area of research, putting special emphasis on the neural underpinnings of time processing in behaving human and non-human primates. Thus, Neurobiology of Interval Timing will integrate for the first time the current knowledge of both animal behavior and human cognition of the passage of time in different behavioral context, including the perception and production of time intervals, as well as rhythmic activities, using different experimental and theoretical frameworks. The book will the composed of chapters written by the leading experts in the fields of psychophysics, functional imaging, system neurophysiology, and musicology. This cutting-edge scientific work will integrate the current knowledge of the neurobiology of timing behavior putting in perspective the current hypothesis of how the brain quantifies the passage of time across a wide variety of critical behaviors.