Title: A mechanism of synaptic clock underlying subjective time perception,
Abstract: Temporal resolution of visual information processing is thought to be an
important factor in predator-prey interactions, shaped in the course of
evolution by animals' ecology. Here I show that light can be considered to have
a dual role of a source of information, which guides motor actions, and an
environmental feedback for those actions. I consequently show how temporal
perception might depend on behavioral adaptations realized by the nervous
system. I propose an underlying mechanism of synaptic clock, with every synapse
having its characteristic time unit, determined by the persistence of memory
traces of synaptic inputs, which is used by the synapse to tell time. The
present theory offers a testable framework, which may account for numerous
experimental findings, including the interspecies variation in temporal
resolution and the properties of subjective time perception, specifically the
variable speed of perceived time passage, depending on emotional and
attentional states or tasks performed.