Mysterious Tendrils Inside The Brain May Control Our Perception of Time

According to a recent study on mice by researchers from the University of California, Irvine, tiny antenna-like organelles seem to play a key role in keeping track of time.

The microtubule projections can be found in many of our own cells.

Most of the human body is non-motile and has a role in motion.

These structures were thought to be vestigial by the initial investigations. A signaling hub system that keeps the body adapting and responding appropriately includes many primary cilia.

While many roles of primary cilia in receiving and responding to sensory information have been established, little is known about how they fit in with higher-order cognitive functions in the brain.

The striatum is a part of the brain that is responsible for coordinating motor movements, learning, planning, and decision-making. Maintaining attention and managing working memory is important.

The researchers used a method to remove striatum cilia in mice that had a dramatic effect.

The negative effects of the cilia removal on the mice were noted.

The rodents were unable to learn new motor tasks and were also slow to make decisions. Their ability to quickly remember location and orientation information was negatively affected.

The mice were put through mazes to test their ability to recognize objects and locations.

Accurate and precise timing judgement is required for successful performance of working memory, attention, decision-making and executive function.

Losing the ability to quickly adjust behavior in response to changes in external stimuli is one of the consequences of impaired capacity.

The loss of ability to quickly change behavior in response to changes in the environment is a common characteristic of all the impacts.

It's likely that the human brain's cilia work in the same way as they do in mice. The researchers are trying to understand the relationship between time perception and cilia more closely.

The finding improves our understanding of how we see the world and could help us fix it if our view of time goes wrong.

Many mental and neurological disorders include impaired time perception and a faulty judgement of time.

The results may lead to new avenues for effective intervention.

We are trying to understand the mechanisms by which cilia regulate time perception and develop targeted therapies to improve behavioral deficits.

The research has appeared in a journal.