Memory is our time-keeper

20 Feb Memory is our time-keeper

February 20th, 2019

Recent papers published in Nature Neuroscience and Nature, discuss the role of the hippocampus in the representation of time.  Shapiro (2019) makes a wonderful summary of the evidence and concludes what sounds intuitive: “Without memory, time would not exist; memory is its only evidence. Like space, time is an a priori notion, an inescapable mental framework” (this is taking us back to Kant). “The new findings suggest that specific neural circuits parse the continuity of experience into sequences of discrete events framed by behavioral episodes”.  Yes! As a pschologist I find it facinating that behavior, the accomplishment of a goal is what frames time, and that great thinkers, like Kant, can have this wonderful insights.

Shapiro M.L. (2019) Time is just a memory. Nature Neuroscience 22: 151-153.