The seventeenth public lecture in the series The Human Body in Health and Disease will present the latest insights into how the human brain processes information about its surroundings, time, and space. The lecture will be given by RNDr. David Levčík, Ph.D. from the Laboratory of Neurophysiology of Memory of IPHYS, and by PhDr. RNDr. Tereza Nekovářová, Ph.D., from the National Institute of Mental Health.

Venue: Grand Hall of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Národní 3, Prague 1

Seat reservations: Olga Zimmermannová, olga.zimmermannova@fgu.cas.cz, tel. +420 778 484 825

Abstract:
For an organism to navigate its environment, the brain must create internal representations of space. A key role in this process is played by the hippocampus, which organizes relationships between objects and locations into so-called cognitive maps. However, the hippocampus encodes not only space but also time—for example, the sequence of events or the intervals between them. According to one of the newer theories, the temporal compression hypothesis, the brain can condense temporal information into simplified representations of expected situations. Instead of precisely tracking each individual step in time, it creates a predictive model of what is likely to happen next. It works similarly to how, when driving toward an intersection, the brain already anticipates the need to slow down or stop.
This popular science lecture will explore how the hippocampus helps us navigate an ever-changing world—and what happens when this system fails.