Social timing as an active, multisensory, and embodied process. A commentary on 'The evolution of social timing' by Verga, Kotz and Ravignani

Abstract

[eng] In the article titled 'The Evolution of Social Timing' Verga et al. [1] offer a remarkable analysis of the intersection between sociality and timing in both human and non-human species. The authors contend that while social timing is widespread across species, its evolutionary origins remain elusive (e.g., did sociality and timing evolve independently of each other, or did they become functionally linked during evolution?). The authors discuss that to move the field forward, it is necessary to leave behind methodological and theoretical limitations such as inconsistent definitions, varied mechanistic explanations, and anthropocentric biases in comparative studies. To address these issues and further our understanding of the temporal aspects of interaction, the authors introduce a comprehensive framework that employs cross-species comparisons, a spectrum of methodologies from controlled experiments to ecological settings and an array of metrics, including behavioural, brain, and physiological data.