The recollection of our specific events or experiences in life such as remembering the “what, where, and when” of past experiences is termed as
‘Special ‘time neurons’ in the hippocampus may be involved in time-related features of memory, that is, they fire during specific moments in time. Hence the discovery of time-tracking neurons in the human brain may help in decoding the different moments in time.’
The spatial memory that is “where” I generally found to be encoded by a type of cells called ‘place cells’ in the hippocampus. These neurons fire in response to specific locations. However the neurons responsible for encoding “when” remain masked.
The Time Neurons
The present study has finally deciphered the code and has found that a particular set of hippocampal neurons fire in response to specific moments in time, that is, “when” in rodents.
The study team recorded the electrical activity of neurons in the hippocampus of epilepsy patients who are undergoing diagnostic invasive monitoring for surgery. The participants viewed and memorized a sequence of 5 to 7 images during the recording.
Questions were asked to the participants on the next image in the sequence at random intervals before it resumed. It was found that during specific moments in time between quizzes, time-sensitive neurons fired irrespective of the image. Time was tracked by the neurons even during 10-second gaps when the participants had to wait without the display of any images.
Hence the different moments in time were decoded by the study team based on the activity of the entire group of neurons. This finally proves the discovery of time-tracking neurons in the human brain.
Source: Medindia
