physiology of internal timing?

I have been blessed with a drummer in my head...or something. I never have trouble keeping a beat, changing tempo. I have no explanation.
perhaps it is an extension of my sense of time. I never wear a watch but am never late. I wake in the morning at the same time. if i have an appointment, whcih would change my routine, I still wake in time. I never had an alarm clock.

Why would our body ever want to have a internal rhythm based on seconds and minutes? Humans do have an excellent bio-rhythm.

IMO, we do have a sense to spot rhythm. That's why when we hear loud dance music being played at a distant place, our feet start moving automatically.

While playing the guitar, some people may have a better sense of timing then others. You can practice with the metronome to improve it.

Good Luck.

it's cuz you lack pigmentation.

it's cuz you lack pigmentation.

:shock:

I can maintain a constant pace while running better than my friends. In fact they like to run with me because I keep the pace during the races. I was thinking on it last week. I'm not using electronic gear for running now (pulsometer, GPS, etc.), I run "by sensations" as the runners say. I don't know if I have a good, innate sense of rhythm or the music made I improved it. Sometimes I think on a song or a progression while running and I try to adapt my feet to the rhythm.

bio-rhythm
what is it?

You can practice with the metronome to improve it

this is what i am trying to ask for...why do we need to practise the "internal timing" ? is it because our 'internal timing" reacts and created by our habit( how we get used to a time) ?thx u

Well, humans have a pretty impressive circadian rhyhtm, which influences many functions in our body. For example, the temperature inside our body is always fluctating in a 24-hour cycle, even if there is no clue at all to the body what time of the day it is. Circadian rhyhtm also influences hormone releases, sleeping patterns, activity levels, and many, many other functions of our body. These are all based on the length of a day, and serves to keep the body going in a way that is least dangerous to us (stay awake/eat/hunt/whatver during the day, sleep at night)

All very simplified but our body does have a very strong sense of rhythm, it's just not really evolved to support a BPM counter. :P

wow,thx u Ignar...thx a lot..are u a doctor? amazing...thx a lot for the quick answer for that bio-rhythm question..thx u .. :)

i'm still asking the 2nd question now.. :P :)

why do we need to practise the "internal timing" ?

Because we are not machines; we are biological beings, relying on chemical reactions to take place for everything we do. We make mistakes, and are required to use our ability to concentrate on all but the most mundance tasks. It would make no sense for a person to be born with an automatic, never-fails metronome running in thier head. What would be the point? There is no evolutionary need for it, so we don't have it. As Arjen said, our bodies do have a strong sense of rhythm, but it is used for unconcious, involuntary actions (heartbeat, temperature, pressure etc.)

Besides that, the entire concept of time and keeping time is a purely concious, human-created ideal to help us interpert what we have happening around us. The Earth moving around the Sun, and the Sun 'rising' and 'setting' is one fluid, never-ending motion; we just break it up into years, months, weeks days and hours so that we can all apply the same idea as to what is going on around us. :D

Pete

this is what i am trying to ask for...why do we need to practise the "internal timing" ? is it because our 'internal timing" reacts and created by our habit( how we get used to a time) ?thx u

It's back to evolution again. Humans live in all kinds of situations, places and circumstances which demand different skills and abilities. Now some demands of our environment are the same for all of us, so the mechanisms to deal with those are 'programmed' into us before we are born. All of us love sugar (glucose) because it's a great energy source that's very rare in the natural world. We all dislike bitter food because it's a good indication it's poisonous. For other things we are semi-prepared: spiders can be deadly, so we're quick to learn to be scared of spiders if our surrounding is. Sometimes things go wrong and people get scared of spiders in areas where spiders aren't lethal, or they don't get scared where spiders are a real threat. This explains why many people in the western world are unreasonably scared of spiders, but only very few of us are unreasonably scared of doorknobs.

However, to make sure we can handle the unpredictable side of life humans are extremely adaptable, or in other words we can excel in whatever we decide to repeatedly do. A young baby, for example, will have no concept of a major scale, or minor chord. After listening to western music for some years the fundamentals of western music will get burned in our brains and we can respond to it automatically. Same goes for playing the guitar: in itself it's a really strange thing to do, moving your fingers over some strings just because it sounds nice. We're not 'designed' or 'evolved' to play guitar, so we need to practice it. Play your major scale often enough and it'll become a natural thing to do, like walking and breathing.

Same thing goes for rhythm: being able to count a 6/8 time signature at 84BPM is not a skill that's extremely vital for our survival. But if you practice enough our brains will adapt and accept it as a new skill. If you'd compare the brains of, say, Eric Clapton with a non-musician you'll find out that the brainpart responsible for finger-responsiveness is much larger in EC's head then in the non-musicians head. It didn't start that way, it's something Eric did himself by practicing.

And no, I'm not a doctor, just a humble psychology student.

I was in a symposium on Neurophysiology and Artificial Intelligence last June. One of the plenary sessions was about Arjen has explained. I don't remember the speaker's name, he is a neurophysiologist of the a very important center in the south of USA, I think, Texas, Univesity or a Medical Research Center.

He shown some experiments on blind people and how his/her brain is modified or adapted to read Braille. The conclusions shown that the part of the brain used for visual processes in non-blind people was reused for the blind people for improving the touch for the Braille signs. Impressive.

If the people used for the experiment didn't read in some time, I don't remember, just a couple of days or so, they lose the skill but it was recovered in a very short of time again.

Arjen, perhaps the paper could be interesting for you. I have the proceedings at the office. Send me a PM if you want the paper and I'll send to you in September.

Circadian rhyhtm also influences hormone releases, sleeping patterns, activity levels, and many, many other functions of our body.
Oh., man, don't I know it. My hormones decided that my body clock needed adjustment - it's been reset so that I wake at 4:45 (+- 10 minutes) every morning - I'm in permanent jet-lag.
2 months of that is no joke, I can tell you.

wow,thx u Ignar...thx a lot..are u a doctor? amazing...thx a lot for the quick

He is a psychological expert and a performer of amazing feats here on GN. Aren't you, Ignar ? :wink: