Our time sensors

We perceive the things of the world that surrounds us thanks to our senses, touch, smell, sight, hearing and taste, we can perceive the wind on our face, smell the flowers in the field, see a spring landscape, hear the sound of birds and taste the fruit of a tree, but have you ever thought about how we can perceive something like time?

We are aware of its pace and also of the temporary Rhythm that surrounds us, but how our brain does it; researchers at the University of California at Irvine have found that "removal of cilia from the striatum region of the brain impairs perception and judgment of time."

And this reveals the importance of the cilia that are like the zebras of a brush or some antennae, with this finding it is discovered that the cilia are possible new therapeutic targets to treat mental and neurological conditions such as schizophrenia, Parkinson's disease or the autism spectrum disorder among many others, since a common feature of mental and neurological disorders is the decreased ability of patients to adapt to variations in their environment and also to accurately estimate the moment and completion of actions volunteers.

The cilia protrude from the surface of the brain cell like antennae, they are flexible and act as a signaling center that detects and transmits signals to generate the appropriate reactions acting like a clock, exactly how they do it is still unknown, but thanks to this work it is known what happens when they are missing or defective.

Using conditional genetic manipulation technology, the researchers managed to remove striatal cilia in the brain of mice, the result was that the mice were unable to learn new tasks, displayed repetitive behavior and exhibited delays in decision-making, were also deficient in quickly recalling information about their location and orientation in space, as well as their ability to filter environmental and relevant sensory information was greatly impaired, however, the mice retained previously learned habitual motor skills and maintained long-term memory.

Paying attention, learning something new or making decisions quickly need a very precise judgment of time, within a millisecond to a minute, if the cilia fail that clock fails.

The next step for the researchers is to understand the mechanisms by which the cilia regulate the perception of time and to develop targeted therapies to treat the pathologies that I mentioned before. The goal would be to be able to repair the damaged cilia, but to imagine if in the future they not only could repair if not improve their qualities, we could pay attention and remember even the smallest details, learn and make decisions much faster and perceive time with a precision on a scale now unknown.

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