Unveiling the Brain's Time-Ordering Framework

Scientists at NTNU's Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience have discovered a pattern of activity in the brain that serves as a template for building sequential experiences. The researchers identified a fundamental mechanism for sequence formation in the medial entorhinal cortex (MEC), a brain area involved in navigation and episodic memory. They found that neurons in the MEC coordinate in ultra-slow oscillations, forming sequences that overlap with the timescale of events encoded in our memories. This discovery provides new insights into how the brain organizes experiences into a temporal order and may lead to a better understanding of brain coordination.