Special Seminar

November 6 (Fri.), 2026
16:00-17:00 (JST)
at the Conference Room in the CiNet bldg and online.

For on-site particiation, please come to the Conference Room on the 1st floor of the CiNet bldg directly.
For online participation, please sign up here by noon on November 5.
*If any information is missing, you may not be able to participate. Please do not use an abbreviation for your affiliation.
*We will send you the access information on November 5.

Talk title: Brain Time: Temporal Rhythms, Binding Windows, and the Present Moment

David Melcher
Global Network Professor of Psychology
Science Division, New York University Abu Dhabi

Host : Masamichi Hayashi

Abstract:
Psychological time, the way in which we experience temporality, clearly differs from “clock time” and physical theories of time. While it is clear that temporal experience is generated by the brain, how is psychological time created, and how does it structure our perception, action and cognition? I will review work from my lab in the context of three key ideas about psychological time. First, I will argue that psychological time, and cognition more generally, is shaped by brain and body rhythms. Second, I will address the challenge of how the brain organizes continuous sensory input into meaningful discrete events. This process involves temporal binding windows, in which the ceaseless flow from our senses is separated or combined at multiple time scales. Finally, I will review evidence for the role of prediction and postdiction, together with rhythms and windows, in generating our subjective and conscious experience of “now” — the present moment.