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Perhaps you have already delayed your dog 's walk and you will have noticed that you do not like it at all … or one day you gave him the food later than usual. habit and barking were heard everywhere neighborhood … Well, we tell you that these behaviors, as well as others, type, finally find an explanation and that is that the animals know exactly what time it is.
This is at least confirmed by a new study published in Nature Neuroscience and developed by researchers at Northwestern University (USA), who were able to find evidence indicating that animals can measure time with enough precision .
The main focus of the research was examining the medial entorhinal cortex of the brain, where they discovered a set of hitherto unknown neurons that illuminate like a clock when an animal is waiting.
via GIPHY
" This is one of the most compelling experiments to show that animals actually have an explicit representation of time in their brains when they are challenged to measure a time interval, "said Daniel Dombeck, director of the study and professor of neurobiology at the aforementioned university.
Mice were the protagonists of this experiment, to which the activity of the entorhinal cortex was measured during a task of measuring time. In an environment controlled by virtual reality, they had to spin a wheel for six seconds to open a door, then receive food as a reward.
As soon as the mice learned the circuit, they removed the door. However, for six seconds, the animals circled the wheel and were placed where the door was to receive the reward. This shows that they are able to control space and time. they go to the invisible door, we see the cells that control the space turn on; but when the animals stop at the door, these cells go out and others light up. It was a big surprise and a new discovery, "explained the professor.
A very important finding, given that the discovery of new neurons coding time will allow to study the impact of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease
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