ABSTRACT
From the point of view of the cognitive dynamicist the organization of brain circuitry into assemblies defined by their synchrony at particular (and precise) oscillation frequencies seems logical – if the object of this organization is the correct correlation of all independent cortical responses to the different featural aspects of a given complex thought or other object. From the point of view of anyone operating complex mechanical systems, i.e. those comprising independent components that are required to interact precisely in time, it goes to follows that the precise timing of such a system is essential. Not only essential but measurable, scalable (if the system has several interacting parts, each doing tasks of different scale), and reliable over observations. The catastrophic consequence of an absence of such precision, for instance that required to govern the interference engine in many automobiles, is indicative of how important timing is for the function of dynamical systems at all levels of operation. The dynamicist and temporal considerations combined, indicate that it is necessary to consider the operating characteristic of any dynamical, cognitive brain system both in terms, superficially at least, of oscillation frequencies, which may themselves be forensic of an underlying time-related taxonomy. Currently there are only two sets of relevant and necessarily systematic observations in this field: one of these reports the precise dynamical structure of the perceptual systems engaged in dynamical binding across form and time; the second, derived both empirically from perceptual performance data, as well as obtained from theoretical models, demonstrates a timing taxonomy related to a fundamental operator referred to as the time quantum. In this contribution both sets of theory and observations are reviewed and compared for their predictive consistency. Conclusions about direct comparability are discussed for both theories of cognitive dynamics and time quantum models, with an agenda defined for future research.
