Researchers have found that the human brain is capable of autonomously making mental time travel.
It uses hippocampal neurons to do this, which record past sequences.
These cells allow "the representation of an internal or intrinsic temporal flow which does not depend on an element coming from the outside world", explained the neuroscientist Leila Reddy to
Vice
.
She is the lead author of a study on the subject published Monday in
Journal of Neuroscience
.
Research has shown that functioning without stimulation of hippocampal neurons gives the brain the ability to encode events in the chronological order of their occurrence.
These real "time cells" then allow the creation of memories temporally consistent with the original element.
The brain activity of subjects was analyzed
To reach their conclusions, specialists from the Center for Brain and Cognition Research (CerCo) in Toulouse analyzed the brain activity of subjects performing tasks requiring sequential memory.
The participants were instructed to memorize the images to come.
Other volunteers who received no indication had the same functioning of brain cells.
Scientists deduced that the human hippocampus was endowed by default with a "robust representation of time".
The moments at which the subjects' brains allowed experts to establish that the phenomenon could result from the activation of automatic internal sequences.
In addition to a better understanding of this cerebral time travel in humans, the study could provide clues concerning the management of patients suffering from certain neurological disorders.
This is the case, for example, with pathologies causing difficulty in locating oneself in time or remembering events.
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