Hippocampal time cells can encode specific moments of organized experiences in time to support hippocampal functions of episodic memory. But little is known about the reorganization of time cells during timely changes of episodes. Akihiro Shimbo and a research team at the Riken center for brain science and the department of psychology, Keio University in Japan investigated CA1 neuronal activity – that are critical for autobiographical memory, mental time travel and autonoetic consciousness in humans. During temporal bisection tasks they designed the sets of time intervals to be extended, discriminated or contracted, across the blocks of trials. The team scaled the theta phase precession and theta sequences of time cells to preserve the fine temporal relationships between pairs in theta cycles. Using rat models, they showed how the theta sequences reflected the decisions of rates on the basis of their time. The findings demonstrated how scalable features of time cells may support flexible temporal representations of memory formation.