Turns out even pets can tell time thanks to their ‘timing cells’

In an interesting new study, researchers have discovered that pets, be it a cat or a dog, have the ability to tell time, thanks to their previously undiscovered ‘timing cells’ in brain.

Research from Northwestern University focused on the question whether animals can tell time, which resulted in a positive answer after studying the pet’s brain. Pets are able to tell time especially when it’s time to feed.

Researchers examined the brain’s medial entorhinal cortex, through which they found a set of previously undiscovered neurons. These neurons function to switch on something similar to a clock that triggers when the animal is waiting, reported Digital Journal.

Pet translator being made to let people converse with their pets

Lead researcher Daniel Dombeck explained that the pet even knows if the owner took twice as long to feed it as compared to the previous day. “This is one of the most convincing experiments to show that animals really do have an explicit representation of time in their brains when they are challenged to measure a time interval.”

The study published in journal Nature Neuroscience explained, the brain’s medial entorhinal cortex is located in the medial temporal lobe that functions as a hub in a huge network for memory, navigation, and time perception. Because this region also records episodic memories, which record events that are experience over time, scientists decided to experiment with this part of the brain.

Scientists used VR experiment called ‘doorstep’ where a mice was involved in tasks such as running on a physical treadmill in a VR environment, which was a hallway with a door located halfway down the track. The mouse would have to wait for six seconds in front of the door after which it would open leading to food for the mouse.

After several sessions, the door was made invisible. The mice knew where the door was, waited for six seconds and then ran for the reward. The VR tuned out all other sensory inputs and mice was able to judge time using only with his ‘timing cells’.

“There are many similarities between the brains of mice, cats, dogs and humans,” Dombeck told Fox News. “We all have a medial entorhinal cortex (the region we found that may act as an inner clock), so it's logical to think that this brain region serves a similar function in all of these different species.”

Dombeck believes his research can have impact on humans as well, especially in the case of Alzheimer’s.