Scientists under the leadership of Arkarup Banerji, assistant professor of the Biology Laboratory Kold Harbor Laboratory, conducted a curious experiment with the participation of rare mice of Alston from Costa Rica. These rodents have the ability to make lingering melodic sounds similar to singing, which lasts up to several seconds and is clearly audible to the human ear.
Researchers decided to find out how the brain of these rodents arranges, allowing them to vary the duration and speed of their “singing”. For this, scientists analyzed the activity of neurons in the so-called oropharative motor cortex (OMK) of mice – the area of the brain, which is responsible for the movement of the mouth and larynx.
Scientists literally “sang a duet” with rodents, recording sounds made by mice and at the same time analyzing the activity of neurons in the oropharative motor cortex of their brain. Then the researchers compared the samples of neural activity during singing with different duration and speed.
The brain distorts the perception of time
As a result, a curious property of OMK neurons was discovered – the ability to “temporary scaling.” “Instead of encoding an absolute time like a clock, neurons track something like a relative time,” Bannerji explains. “They actually slow down or accelerate the interval. That is, this is not one or two seconds, but 10%, 20%.”
The consequences for understanding brain function
According to Banerji, this discovery is important not only for studying speech and language mechanisms. It can explain the calculation of temporary intervals in other areas of the brain, which is important for the regulation of a wide spectrum of behavior and cognitive functions.
And the flexibility and ability to adapt to changing conditions makes our brain with such a unique tool, revealing truly unlimited opportunities for training, creativity and technology development.