What’s Your Brain’s Role in Creating Space & Time?

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Physics is the business of figuring out the structure of the world. So are our brains. But sometimes physics comes to conclusions that are in direct conflict with concepts fundamental to our minds, such as the realness of space and time. How do we tell who’s correct? Are time and space objective realities or human-invented concepts?

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Hosted by Matt O'Dowd
Written by Bahar Gholipour & Matt O'Dowd
Post Production by Leonardo Scholzer, Yago Ballarini, Pedro Osinski, Caique Oliveira, Adriano Leal & Stephanie Faria
Directed by Andrew Kornhaber
Associate Producer: Bahar Gholipour
Executive Producers: Eric Brown & Andrew Kornhaber
Executive in Charge for PBS: Maribel Lopez
Director of Programming for PBS: Gabrielle Ewing
Assistant Director of Programming for PBS: John Campbell

Spacetime is produced by Kornhaber Brown for PBS Digital Studios.
This program is produced by Kornhaber Brown, which is solely responsible for its content.
© 2023 PBS. All rights reserved.

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[GraveUypo]

it fascinates me how us, the result of these processes, are here trying to figure out the processes, through the processes themselves. it's like an AI looking at its own code while it executes

[psychoedge]

I love these episodes that cross into other fields of science and prepare us for even weirder fundamental information

[wetbobspongepants]

To me, space and time are relative, the more time I spend with my relatives the more space I need

[vvdv]

As a neuroscientist interested in physics, this episode was a marvelous meeting of worlds. The finding that hippocampal space/time navigation resides in the same area that governs episodic memory may be especially revealing about how humans think and experience the world/universe.Great explanation and graphics, as usual, but now closer to “home”. Many thanks, Matt and Spacetime.

[HeavyMetalMouse]

I have once heard it said, "If the brain were simple enough that we could easily understand how it functions, then the brain would be be too simple to be able to understand how it functions." I feel like we're always fighting against this sort of thing whenever we try to understand how we process some form of information in a detailed way, and it is endlessly fascinating. :)

[smartyy]

and deeper into the rabbit hole we go! thank you PBS and Matt for this awesome journey over the last years

[Jm-wtfs]

I love the direction this channel has taken and how Matt has grown into one of the best science communicators of our time

[unvergebeneid]

While playing Hyperbolica, a game set in non-Euclidean spaces that will absolutely break your brain, I looked some of this stuff up to see if the grid cells were hard-wired from birth to a Euclidean plane or if they just formed this way during brain development because that maps to our experience. What I found seems to indicate that it is the former. Much to my dismay, however, nobody ever did an experiment on mice where they would wear tiny VR goggles from birth that simulate hyperbolic space. Until someone does, we don't seem to know for certain.

[sy]

These videos are lullaby to me. I play it in background and this is the fastest way for me to sleep

[jakeireland]

This episode is picking apart the fabric of reality at the most profound and mind-expanding level.

[ia]

I've got to say, I really enjoy these videos that incorporate physics with philosophical ideas. They are beginning to be some of my favorite videos!

[larkstonguesinaspic]

I knew at some point this channel would have to dive into neuroscience. Really after all this whole reality is being experienced this way through our brains. I truly believe the key to understanding reality, aside from physics, is understanding the brain and consciousness. Which we know very little about.

[biggles]

Automated mapping is based on relationships between origin and destination so the relational view makes sense (topology). I love also how we can not only mentally map our world, but also worlds in media, from a real, first person, third person, or bird’s eye perspective. Or from a story someone has told us, we can imagine and generate a mental map

[chesterhackenbush]

Sometimes these videos go beyond informative and entertaining, utterly amazing. Pure magic.

[macronencer]

Wow, the neuroscience in this was astonishing. I hadn't heard of half the research you referenced. Amazing!
I think this also says something about those memory techniques some people use to memorize decks of cards by associating each one with a location on a memorized walk through an imaginary building...

[BrandNewByxor]

The hexagonal grid cells and place cells are fascinating. I love when "intelligence" gets broken down into simple rules that make me feel like a biological computer, makes me worry less about the bigger picture

[Chet]

God, I love this channel so much. I just love having my brain blown away. Running headfirst into the limit of our collective understanding of the universe and daring to peak over the edge.

This stuff just makes me feel so alive and connected to everything around me.

[fafnir]

Matt is one of the greatest professors of our time. It's always a pleasure to watch his show.

[samuelwu]

OK it's 5 months later now, are we ever going to get back to finishing up this series on the demise of space and time?

[PeterGaunt]

What an interesting series you have started. I'm an old man now but as a kid and teenager physics was my main love. I manged well with it up until A-level (UK exams seen as essential for going to university) but I knew I didn't have the maths to study it at university and chose to do biology instead. The interview at the uni I went to was with a prof who was a renowned neurologist. I didn't know this at the time and when he asked what topic fascinated me I said 'The brain'. I've tried to keep up with biology and physics over the years, and find thinking about areas of overlap a way of keeping my brain active.

Keep up the good work.