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+--- Thread: Research “Time cells” in the brain are critical for complex learning, study shows (/thread-16103.html)
“Time cells” in the brain are critical for complex learning, study shows - C C - Jun 30, 2024
“Time cells” in the brain are critical for complex learning, study shows
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1048728
INTRO: A sense of time is fundamental to how we understand, recall, and interact with the world. Tasks ranging from holding a conversation to driving a car require us to remember and perceive how long things take—a complex but largely unconscious calculation running constantly beneath the surface of our thoughts.
Now, researchers at University of Utah Health have found that, in mice, a specific population of “time cells” is essential for learning complex behaviors where timing is critical. Like the second hand of a clock, time cells fire in sequence to map out short periods of time.
But time cells aren’t just a simple clock, the researchers found—as animals learn to distinguish between differently timed events, the pattern of time cell activity changes to represent each pattern of events differently. The discovery could ultimately aid in early detection of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, that affect the sense of time.
The new study is published in Nature Neuroscience... (MORE - details, no ads)
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'Time cells' in the brain could be more crucial than we ever realized
https://www.sciencealert.com/time-cells-in-the-brain-could-be-more-crucial-than-we-ever-realized
EXCERPTS: . . . To create a memory for your own personal archives, your brain must encode the timing and sequence of events as you're experiencing them. It creates this timeline using circuits in the medial temporal lobe (MTL), one of which is the medial entorhinal cortex (MEC).
This MEC circuit has 'time cells' that fire at specific moments during tasks, on a scale of seconds and minutes, a kind of organic internal metronome that helps us keep track of time in the moment.
Scientists suspect this 'timer' may leave its mark on episodic memories, so the 'frames' of our experience are replayed in sequence, with a built-in rhythm. But to do so, these time cells would need learning dynamics that allow them to encode different temporal contexts.
We know 'spatial cells' within the MTL can reorganize their 'firing fields' according to spatial contexts, as an animal moves through different and changing environments.
The researchers wanted to investigate whether time cells have a similar ability to 're-map' to different temporal contexts.
[...] "Surprisingly, time cells play a more complicated role than merely tracking time," says the study's first author, neurobiologist Erin Bigus.
"The MEC isn't acting like a really simple stopwatch that's necessary to track time in any simple circumstance. Its role seems to be in actually learning these more complex temporal relationships."
This research could lead to a better understanding of psychological conditions where people experience time very differently, like Alzheimer's, which we already know affects the MEC early in its progression.
"We are interested in exploring whether complex timing behavior tasks could be a useful way to detect the early onset of Alzheimer's disease," says senior author of the study, neurobiologist James Heys.
There's also growing interest in how 'time blindness' – a symptom of ADHD and autism – arises. Understanding how time is mapped and recorded in the brain could help progress investigations there, too... (MORE - details)