Newswise — 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. Mouse code By combining a complex time-based learning task with advanced brain imaging, researchers were able to watch patterns of time cell activity become more complex as the mice learned. The researchers first set up a trial where learning the differences in the timing of events was critical.
To get a reward, mice had to learn to distinguish between patterns of an odor stimulus that had variable timing, as if they were learning a very simple form of Morse code. Before and a.
