Space and time in the brain
Year: 2017
Type: review
Abstract: 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.
Source: Science
Authors: György Buzsáki, Rodolfo Llinás
Institution: New York University
Language: English
Topic: Memory and Neural Mechanisms
Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
Awards: HIPPOCAMPAL INTERNEURONAL NETWORK, Towards a Complete Description of the Circuitry Underlying Memory replay., G1230148991, G2291608041, Modular High-Density Optoelectrodes for Local Circuit Analysis, G5919531410, Deducing the origin and effect of extracellular electric fields in hippocampus, G8412346452, G8928057743
OpenAlex ID: W2766264103