Time Cells Don't Really Care About Time

Short Wave

NPR

Daily News, Nature, Life Sciences, Astronomy, Science, News

4.7 • 6K Ratings

🗓️ 3 January 2023

⏱️ 13 minutes

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Summary

Time is woven into our personal memories. If you recall a childhood fall from a bike, your brain replays the entire episode in excruciating detail: The glimpse of wet leaves on the road ahead, that moment of weightless dread and then the painful impact. This exact sequence has been embedded into your memory thanks to some special neurons known as time cells. Science correspondent Jon Hamilton talks to Emily about these cells — and why the label "time" cells is kind of a misnomer.

Concerned about the space-time continuum? Email us at [email protected] — using science, we might be able to set you at ease in a future episode.

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to Shortwave from NPR.
0:05.0	Happy 2023 Shortwavers?
0:10.2	Personally, I love the New Year because one party's two
0:14.1	permission to entertain all of my existential issues
0:17.0	about the meaning of life and what I'm doing
0:18.8	on this planet.
0:20.1	The passage of time does that kind of thing to a person,
0:22.8	which is why this month, we are bringing you
0:25.8	a batch of episodes on time itself,
0:29.2	reported by our talented colleagues on the science desk.
0:33.1	And today, we are talking about how the brain
0:36.0	tracks the passage of time.
0:37.8	With NPR's very own neuro-savante, John Hamilton.
0:41.9	Hello, John.
0:42.9	Hello, Emily.
0:43.8	Happy New Year.
0:45.0	To you too.
0:46.1	So, as you know, I'm perpetually late to everything.
0:49.4	That is very Kim Kardashian.
0:51.3	Okay, okay, but only by like four minutes,
0:54.5	or maybe 10 minutes sometimes.
0:55.9	But I know from talking to you that even if I lose
	...

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