Space and time in the brain

Nothing is more intuitive, yet more complex, than the concepts of space and time. In contrast to spacetime in physics, space and time in neuroscience remain separate coordinates to which we attach our observations. Investigators of navigation and memory relate neuronal activity to position, distance...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Vol. 358; no. 6362; p. 482
Main Authors: Buzsáki, György, Llinás, Rodolfo
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: United States 27.10.2017
Subjects:
Animals
Brain - cytology
Brain - physiology
Humans
Memory, Episodic
Neurons - physiology
Rats
Space Perception - physiology
Spatial Navigation - physiology
Time Perception - physiology
ISSN:1095-9203, 1095-9203
Online Access:Get more information
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Nothing is more intuitive, yet more complex, than the concepts of space and time. In contrast to spacetime in physics, space and time in neuroscience remain separate coordinates to which we attach our observations. Investigators of navigation and memory relate neuronal activity to position, distance, time point, and duration and compare these parameters to units of measuring instruments. Although spatial-temporal sequences of brain activity often correlate with distance and duration measures, these correlations may not correspond to neuronal representations of space or time. Neither instruments nor brains sense space or time. Neuronal activity can be described as a succession of events without resorting to the concepts of space or time. Instead of searching for brain representations of our preconceived ideas, we suggest investigating how brain mechanisms give rise to inferential, model-building explanations.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
ObjectType-Review-3
content type line 23
ISSN:1095-9203
1095-9203
DOI:10.1126/science.aan8869