How pets recognize time

New neurons discovered in the brains of pets can "turn on like a clock" and can help them know that it's been too long without feeding.

Animals can know the passage of time through memory-related neurons.

A new study shows that pets can accurately assess how much time has passed and know when their owners feed them late.

Pets can calculate how much time has passed to be eaten again.

New brain cells are discovered like a watch when your pet is waiting for dinner. They can calculate how much time has passed to be eaten again.

Scientists say this finding provides new hope in the fight against Alzheimer's disease, a disease that hinders memory and orientation.

It is believed that these skills are closely linked to the new neurons found by the team, and analyzing these cells in Alzheimer's patients may shed light on the disease.

Scientists at Northwestern University in Illinois found that the entorhinal medial cortex , which is linked to memory and navigation, can also encode time intervals.

They said the memories are attached to a special situation but also come with a sense of how much time has passed.

In the experiment, the mice were trained to run down the hallway toward the door that opened after six seconds.

The researchers made the door invisible in a virtual reality setting, but the mice still waited six seconds before rushing into it.

James Heys, one of the scientists, said: 'The important point is that the mouse doesn't know when the door is open or closed because it is invisible.'

Researchers were able to eliminate signals that felt like the sound of the door opening, meaning that the animal had to rely on time.

Daniel Dombeck, the leader of the study, said: 'Did your dog know that the distance between two meals today is twice as long as it was yesterday ?' Clear words for this question.

This study provides new hope in the fight against Alzheimer's.

'This is one of the most compelling experiments to prove that animals actually have a clear expression of time in their brains when they are challenged to measure time.'

'When the mice run along the tracks and go to the invisible door, we see the encrypted cells that control it. Then, when it stopped in front of the door, we saw those cells turn off and a new set of cells - time-counting cells - turned on. This is a great surprise and a new discovery ".

Experts believe that new research on time and memory can help achieve a medical breakthrough for people.

Heys said: 'The patient is very forgetful of what happens in time'.

'Perhaps this is because they are losing some of the basic functions of the entorhinal cortex, which is one of the first brain regions affected by the disease.

This may lead to early detection tests for Alzheimer's disease. "