Neurophysiology and phase precession have a storied history, from the 1990's up to the Nobel Prize in 2014. Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phase_prec

Neurophysiology and phase precession have a storied history, from the 1990's up to the Nobel Prize in 2014. Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phase_precession https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phase_precession O'Keefe and Reece in 1993: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/hipo.450030307 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/hipo.4500303... ... [F]iring consistently began at a particular phase as the rat entered the field but then shifted in a systematic way during traversal of the field, moving progressively forward on each theta cycle... The phase was highly correlated with spatial location... [B]y using the phase relationship as well as the firing rate, place cells can improve the accuracy of place coding.