Coherence Time in Neural Oscillator Assemblies Sets the Speed of Thought

The speed of thought is limited by how quickly brain regions can synchronise their oscillations — not by how fast neurons fire. This creates a fundamental trade-off: larger, more flexible networks process information more slowly.

Mathematical foundation: The $(M-1)$ exponent and geometric scaling are proven rigorously in the companion paper Alignment Probabilities on Product Statistical Manifolds, which derives the result from quotient geometry on the product torus.

Synchronisation time grows exponentially with the number of coordinating modules. Visual binding takes 30–50ms because that's how long it takes visual areas to lock their oscillations. Cross-sensory integration (seeing a face and hearing a voice as unified) takes 100–150ms because it requires more regions to coordinate.

This explains the 1000-fold range of flicker fusion frequency across species — flies perceive time faster than humans because their smaller brains synchronise faster. It also explains the attention paradox: focusing narrows the network you're coordinating, which speeds up processing but reduces flexibility. Under stress, perception slows (larger synchronisation burden) while reaction time stays constant (the motor pathway is independent).

Consciousness may depend more on these synchronised fields than on individual spikes. The binding problem — how distributed neural activity becomes unified experience — is reframed as a synchronisation problem with measurable timescales.