The human brain has a remarkable ability to keep track of a sequence of events, allowing us to properly recall the correct order in which things happened. Researchers have long suspected that neurons in the hippocampus, known as “time cells,” play a crucial role in encoding temporal information and helping us create and recall memories. Recent research has confirmed this theory, showing that these time cells are active even when nothing in particular is happening, encoding the flow of time and helping us remember the order of events.
Time cells are neurons in the hippocampus that represent temporal information, and they have previously been found in rats. However, less was known about how they work in the human brain, until a team of researchers led by neuroscientist Leila Reddy from the Brain and Cognition Research Center (CerCo) in France monitored electrical activity in the brains of 15 epilepsy patients using microelectrodes implanted in the hippocampus. The participants were presented with a sequence of images and asked to memorize the order. The electrodes recorded specific neurons in the hippocampus firing in response during the experiment, both during specific moments and during gaps when no images were shown. The researchers found that time cells in the human brain are “multi-dimensional”, capable of encoding information in relation to time, but also responding to different kinds of sensory information or stimuli.
The team believes that the multi-dimensional behaviour of these time neurons might be what records the ‘what’, ‘where’, and ‘when’ of experiences, stitching elements together to make up coherent memories from a jumble of inputs. According to the researchers, “Central to our experience of reliving the past is our ability to vividly recall specific events that occurred at a specific place and in a specific temporal order… Our results provide further evidence that human hippocampal neurons represent the flow of time in an experience.”
Tags: brain, cognitive stimulation, memory, neuroscienceCategorised in: Uncategorized
This post was written by Evelyn Eekels