Humans have two internal "clocks" capable of predicting the future – Brinkwire

The human brain has two internal "clocks" that predict our immediate future.

According to a new study from the University of California at Berkeley, our neural cabling predicts the next milliseconds.

One of the clocks is based on the experiences of the past, while the other depends on the rhythm – but both are crucial to the way we navigate the world.

These built-in clocks allow humans to know when to momentarily press the accelerator pedal into a car before the light turns green and the cognitive hour indication function also allows us to know exactly when to start singing the next line of a song.

The internal timepieces were discovered after experts had studied the accuracy of the anticipated timing in people with Parkinson's disease.

"It's about sports, music, speech or even attention, our study suggests that timing is not a unified process, but that There are two distinct ways of making temporal predictions, which depend on different parts of the brain "the main author of the study, Assaf Breska.

The findings, published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, provide a new perspective on how humans calculate the right time to move.

"Together, these brain systems allow us to exist not only in the moment, but also to actively anticipate the future," said lead author Richard Ivry.

Breska and Ivry studied the anticipated temporal strengths and deficits of people with Parkinson's disease and people with cerebellar degeneration.

They connected the rhythmic timing to the basal ganglia and the interval timing – an internal timer based largely on our memory of previous experiences – at the cerebellum.

Both are primal brain regions associated with movement and cognition.

In addition, their results suggest that if one of these neural clocks is down, the other could theoretically intervene.

"Our study identifies not only the anticipatory contexts in which these neurological patients are altered, but also the contexts in which they have no difficulty, suggesting that we could modify their environments to facilitate their interaction with the world. face their symptoms. Breska added.

Non-pharmaceutical solutions for neural sync deficits could include brain-drive computer games and smartphone apps, deep brain stimulation and changes in environmental design, he said.