Cerebellar Time and Relative Time: A Comparator-Based Dynamical Timing Model and its Relevance to Psychopathology and Therapies

Time perception is fundamental to adaptive behavior, providing the scaffold for prediction, coordination, and learning. The cerebellum has long been recognized as a core hub for interval timing, yet its role extends beyond motor control to perceptual chronometry, reinforcement learning, and affective regulation. Here we introduce a novel framework, a Comparator-Based Dynamical Timing (CDT) model which describes distortions of subjective time as transformations that yield compression, dilation, and changes in temporal precision. In this account, subjective time is scaled by a gain factor κ. When κ > 1, subjective time dilates; when κ < 1, subjective time compresses. We synthesize convergent evidence from cerebellar anatomy, physiology, and computational modeling, and show how time distortions in psychiatric, neurodegenerative and neurodevelopmental disorders can be interpreted in the context of altered cerebellar temporal processing. We argue that cerebellar circuits operate in concert with cortical and basal ganglia oscillators in a comparator role, minimizing temporal deviation and maximizing precision. We propose that dysfunction across these interconnected networks contributes to distortions in subjective time perception observed in schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, autism spectrum disorder), and motor and movement disorders including Parkinson’s Disease. This framework provides a quantitative tool to predict and monitor the progression of psychiatric and neurodevelopmental/neurodegenerative disorders characterized by disrupted timing networks. Beyond diagnostic utility proposing an EEG-informed approach to track deviations in time perception, it also offers a translational platform for testing novel interventions, including non-invasive neuromodulation such as transcranial magnetic stimulation.