{
  "abstract": "Adaptive behaviour often relies on tracking the passage of time, yet how distinct brain regions generate coherent temporal representations remains unclear. Using a self-paced interval timing task in mice, we show that heterogeneous single-neuron temporal firing profiles distributed across regions are organized within a shared ring manifold. Within this low-dimensional space, population activity evolves along a common trajectory across different intervals and encodes elapsed time in a relative reference frame. Different durations are not represented by separate neural states, but by modulation of traversal speed. These scalable dynamics arise from coordinated population-wide co-scaling of single-neuron activity and support trial-by-trial adjustments in timing behaviour. A cross-regional assembly of start neurons predicts, at interval onset, upcoming waiting duration and behavioural adjustments, linking initial population states to trajectory evolution. Together, these findings identify population traversal of a shared activity manifold as a mechanism for scalable temporal representation across brain regions.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "University of Oxford"
  ],
  "article_type": "New results",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 5,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "M. Serrano"
    },
    {
      "name": "M. Castelli"
    },
    {
      "name": "Y. Peng"
    },
    {
      "name": "A. Sharott"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "D. Dupret"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/865k1rfj53d4g.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.64898/2026.09.03.749079",
  "fulltext_url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.03.749079v1.full",
  "id": "865k1rfj53d4g",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.03.749079v1",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY",
  "licence_label": "CC BY",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "biorxiv",
      "neuroscience"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "2805|Neural dynamics and brain function"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7211949372",
  "pdf_url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.03.749079v1.full.pdf",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-09-03",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/865k1rfj53d4g.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:20:12Z",
      "native_id": "10.64898/2026.09.03.749079",
      "source": "biorxiv",
      "url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.03.749079v1"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "biology",
      "origin": "biorxiv:neuroscience",
      "subfield": "neuroscience"
    }
  ],
  "title": "A shared manifold for scalable temporal representations in self-paced timing",
  "title_text": "A shared manifold for scalable temporal representations in self-paced timing",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:20:12Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/865k1rfj53d4g",
  "venue": "bioRxiv",
  "versions": []
}