Clocks within clocks: timing by coincidence detection

- Reviews circadian, millisecond and interval timing both at biological and theoretical levels.
- Identifies coincidence detection in its most general form as a common mechanism.
- Predicts timing by coincidence detection as an ubiquitous phenomenon at all biological levels.
- Explains reports of biological timing in many brain areas.
- Provides a cohesive view of the timing field.

The many existent models of timing rely on vastly different mechanisms to track temporal information. Here we examine these differences, and identify coincidence detection in its most general form as a common mechanism that many apparently different timing models share, as well as a common mechanism of biological circadian, millisecond and interval timing. This view predicts that timing by coincidence detection is a ubiquitous phenomenon at many biological levels, explains the reports of biological timing in many brain areas, explains the role of neural noise at different time scales at both biological and theoretical levels, and provides cohesion within the timing field.