Research summary
The concept of time travel—the ability to go back in time to re-experience life events—is a common theme in popular science fiction. But for the brain, it isn’t just fantasy: our brains have evolved highly specialized circuits that allow us to travel back in time mentally to recall experiences that occurred minutes, hours or even years in the past.
As Canada Research Chair in Neural Circuits of Memory, Dr. Mark Brandon aims to understand how the brain does this. He and his research team also hope to discover how the brain’s recollection processes become dysfunctional in people with post-traumatic stress disorder and Alzheimer¦s disease.