Flexible clocks can sync up or drift apart across brain regions in mice

MedicalXpress | يول 20, 2026

A study in mice suggests the brain does not rely on a single internal clock but can flexibly switch between shared and independent timing across regions, as reported by researchers from Science Tokyo. By recording thousands of neurons simultaneously in two brain areas during an alternating timing task, the team found that these areas sometimes tracked time together and sometimes separately. The findings, published in Nature Communications, provide a new framework for understanding how brain regions are coordinated.