The Temporal Niche

Abstract

Members of the same species share categorically similar rhythmic events in their communicative activities. In this fashion, conspecifics are bound in time. And this dependence on time during communicative interactions is at the heart of dynamic attending. The chapter develops the hypothesis that the resonance and entrainment capacities of an individual change over a life span. Resonance between driving rhythm and its neural correlate predicts slowing of driven oscillator periods over the life span. A corollary holds that entrainment predicts optimal phase-coupling of the driven (oscillator) with the driving (event) rhythm over the life span. Together, these two trends form the aging hypothesis. Evidence supporting the aging hypothesis is reviewed in this chapter.