'Time Cells' Discovered In Human Brains (npr.org) 18
Researchers have identified cells in the human brain that are responsible for episodic memories. The study has been published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. NPR reports: The cells are called time cells, and they place a sort of time stamp on memories as they are being formed. That allows us to recall sequences of events or experiences in the right order. "By having time cells create this indexing across time, you can put everything together in a way that makes sense," says Dr. Bradley Lega, the study's senior author and a neurosurgeon at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. Time cells were discovered in rodents decades ago. But the new study is critical because "the final arbitrator is always the human brain," says Dr. Gyorgy Buzsaki, Biggs Professor of Neuroscience at New York University. Buzsaki is not an author of the study but did edit the manuscript.
Lega and his team found the time cells by studying the brains of 27 people who were awaiting surgery for severe epilepsy. As part of their pre-surgical preparation, these patients had electrodes placed in the hippocampus and another area of the brain involved in navigation, memory and time perception. In the experiment, the patients studied sequences of 12 or 15 words that appeared on a laptop screen during a period of about 30 seconds. Then, after a break, they were asked to recall the words they had seen. Meanwhile, the researchers were measuring the activity of individual brain cells. And they found a small number that that would fire at specific times during each sequence of words.
"The time cells that we found, they are marking out discrete segments of time within this approximately 30-second window," Lega says. These time stamps seemed to help people recall when they had seen each word, and in what order, he says. And the brain probably uses the same approach when we're reliving an experience like falling off a bike. The results help explain why people who have damage to the hippocampus may experience odd memory problems, Buzsaki says.
Lega and his team found the time cells by studying the brains of 27 people who were awaiting surgery for severe epilepsy. As part of their pre-surgical preparation, these patients had electrodes placed in the hippocampus and another area of the brain involved in navigation, memory and time perception. In the experiment, the patients studied sequences of 12 or 15 words that appeared on a laptop screen during a period of about 30 seconds. Then, after a break, they were asked to recall the words they had seen. Meanwhile, the researchers were measuring the activity of individual brain cells. And they found a small number that that would fire at specific times during each sequence of words.
"The time cells that we found, they are marking out discrete segments of time within this approximately 30-second window," Lega says. These time stamps seemed to help people recall when they had seen each word, and in what order, he says. And the brain probably uses the same approach when we're reliving an experience like falling off a bike. The results help explain why people who have damage to the hippocampus may experience odd memory problems, Buzsaki says.
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Re: Bad name? (Score:2)
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Re:Bad name? (Score:4, Informative)
It's a bad summary. If you read the actual paper, you see that the cells don't record any old order of things, but specifically the temporal order of events. The firing rate of each cell changes at different times over a specific time interval. The paper contains experimental examples for temporal patterns over 1 sec right up to 30 sec.
Still, I agree that they aren't "Time" cells as much as "timing" cells.
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Well, at least we know what happened to Billy Pilgrim, then man who became unstuck from time [wikipedia.org]
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Life is time, it would be logical to keep track of our own existence. Yeah, guilt makes all you fuckers feel real uncomfortable. Life is quest for the future, you deny life a future and life will deny you, leave you to fade in the void a silent scream in the dark. You belief is neither required nor needed, you decide you fate everyday with you choices. Time expresses life and life measures time, creates times, interacts with time and records time. Many of you should feel extremely uncomfortable with the ide
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Re: CNN/NPR (Score:2)
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2038 (Score:3, Funny)
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Nice but... (Score:2)
Poor translation to lay English (Score:2)
Dr. Gyorgy Buzsaki, Biggs Professor of Neuroscience at New York University. Buzsaki is not an author of the study but did edit the manuscript.
This is an unfortunate example of poor translation from scientific English to lay English. Buzsaki, a famous neuroscientist in his own right, was the editor that managed the peer-review process on this paper. That does not necessarily mean he changed the content or influenced it, in fact usually the editors take a hands-off approach when it comes to the content, only selecting reviewers and adjudicating their responses into what amounts to a yes/no/please-change-and-resubmit decision on the manuscript. I
Where in the Brain? (Score:2)
That's probably how deja vu's work.. (Score:3)
You write a memory with an accidental "old timestamp", and then you "access" it as if it was something that happened before, when it actually didn't.
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I thought you were going to say that.