Integrated Calendar

An extensive body of research has established that the hippocampus plays a pivotal role in the encoding of new associations. Yet it remains unclear how entire episodes that unfold over time are bound together in memory. Real-life episodes can be viewed as a sequence of interrelated episodic elements, and their encoding may be incremental, such that each element that is encountered is registered to memory. Conversely, the episode may be stored in a temporary buffer and registered to long-term memory as a cohesive unit when it has come to closure. Using short film clips as memoranda, we find that hippocampal encoding-related activity is time-locked to the offset of the event, potentially reflecting the encoding of a bound representation to long-term memory. Notably, when distinct clips were presented in immediate succession, the hippocampus responded at the offset of each event, suggesting hippocampal activity is triggered the occurrence of event boundaries (transition between events). However, while brief film clips mimic several aspects of real-life, they are still discrete events. To determine whether event boundaries drive hippocampal activity in an ongoing experience, we analysed brain activity of over 200 participants who viewed a naturalistic film and found that the hippocampus responded both reliably and specifically to shifts between scenes. Taken together, these results suggest that during encoding of a continuous experience, event boundaries drive hippocampal processing, potentially supporting the transformation of the continuous stream of information into distinct episodic representations.

HUMAN CURIOSITY
The ability to ask “why?” makes us uniquely human. Curiosity drives basic scientific research, is the engine behind creativity in all disciplines from the arts to technology, is a necessary ingredient in education, and a facilitating tool in every form of storytelling (literature, film, TV, or even a simple conversation) that delights rather than bores. In a fascinating and entertaining lecture, astrophysicist and bestselling author Mario Livio surveys and interprets cutting-edge research in psychology and neuroscience that aims at exploring and understanding the origin and mechanisms of human curiosity. As part of his research into the subject, Livio examined in detail the personalities of two individuals who arguably represent the most curious minds to have ever existed: Leonardo da Vinci and Richard Feynman. He also interviewed 9 exceptionally curious people living today, among them Fabiola Gianotti, the Director General of CERN (who is also an accomplished pianist), paleontologist Jack Horner, and the virtuoso lead guitarist of the rock band Queen, Brian May (who also holds a PhD in astrophysics), and Livio presents fascinating conclusions from these conversations.