{"id":225461,"date":"2025-11-19T17:10:04","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T23:10:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/11\/the-brains-hourglass-the-motor-cortex-and-striatum-work-together-like-an-hourglass-to-measure-time-for-precise-and-coordinated-movement"},"modified":"2025-11-19T17:10:04","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T23:10:04","slug":"the-brains-hourglass-the-motor-cortex-and-striatum-work-together-like-an-hourglass-to-measure-time-for-precise-and-coordinated-movement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/11\/the-brains-hourglass-the-motor-cortex-and-striatum-work-together-like-an-hourglass-to-measure-time-for-precise-and-coordinated-movement","title":{"rendered":"The Brain\u2019s Hourglass: The motor cortex and striatum work together like an hourglass to measure time for precise and coordinated movement"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<p><iframe style=\"display: block; margin: 0 auto; width: 100%; aspect-ratio: 4\/3; object-fit: contain;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/LFavOOIw2GU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope;\n   picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Pause and Rewind: Temporarily silencing the neural activity in the motor cortex paused the brain\u2019s timer, whereas silencing the striatum rewound the timer.<\/p>\n<p>Broader Impacts: These findings reveal how the brain keeps time to coordinate movement, which one day may be harnessed to restore movement in disorders like Parkinson\u2019s and Huntington\u2019s.<\/p>\n<p>Whether speaking or swinging a bat, precise and adaptable timing of movement is essential for everyday behavior. Although we do not have sensory organs like eyes or a nose to sense time, we can keep time and control the timing of our actions. Such timing accuracy depends on a timer in the brain, but how the brain implements this timer was previously unknown. In research published this week in <i>Nature<\/i>, MPFI scientists Zidan Yang, Hidehiko Inagaki, and colleagues reveal how this timer works through the interaction of two brain regions\u2014the motor cortex and the striatum. Together, these areas track the passage of time much like an hourglass.<\/p>\n<p>Read More<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>MPFI Scientists have discovered how two brain areas work together like an hourglass to flexibly control movement timing.<\/p>\n<div class=\"more-link-wrapper\"> <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/11\/the-brains-hourglass-the-motor-cortex-and-striatum-work-together-like-an-hourglass-to-measure-time-for-precise-and-coordinated-movement\">Continue reading \u201cThe Brain\u2019s Hourglass: The motor cortex and striatum work together like an hourglass to measure time for precise and coordinated movement\u201d | &gt;<\/a><\/div><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pause and Rewind: Temporarily silencing the neural activity in the motor cortex paused the brain\u2019s timer, whereas silencing the striatum rewound the timer. Broader Impacts: These findings reveal how the brain keeps time to coordinate movement, which one day may be harnessed to restore movement in disorders like Parkinson\u2019s and Huntington\u2019s. Whether speaking or swinging [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":701,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-225461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical","category-neuroscience"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/701"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225461\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}