News tagged with hippocampus

Genetic predictors of postpartum depression uncovered

Johns Hopkins researchers say they have discovered specific chemical alterations in two genes that, when present during pregnancy, reliably predict whether a woman will develop postpartum depression.

Psychology & Psychiatry created May 21, 2013 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Evidence that brains re-wire themselves following damage or injury

(Medical Xpress)—Scientists from the United States and Australia have advanced our understanding of brain plasticity by showing that the brain forms complex new circuits after damage, often far from the ...

Neuroscience created May 15, 2013 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (8) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Scientists reveal drinking champagne could improve memory

(Medical Xpress)—New research shows that drinking one to three glasses of champagne a week may counteract the memory loss associated with ageing, and could help delay the onset of degenerative brain disorders, ...

Health created May 08, 2013 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (9) | comments 5 | with audio podcast

Getting a grip on sleep

All mammals sleep, as do birds and some insects. However, how this basic function is regulated by the brain remains unclear. According to a new study by researchers from the RIKEN Brain Science Institute, ...

Neuroscience created May 14, 2013 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 2

Serotonin mediates exercise-induced generation of new neurons

Mice that exercise in running wheels exhibit increased neurogenesis in the brain. Crucial to this process is serotonin signaling. These are the findings of a study by researchers at the Max Delbrück Center ...

Neuroscience created May 13, 2013 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (4) | comments 0

Embryonic stem cell transplant restores memory, learning in mice

For the first time, human embryonic stem cells have been transformed into nerve cells that helped mice regain the ability to learn and remember. A study at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is the first ...

Medical research created Apr 21, 2013 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (8) | comments 6 | with audio podcast

Sleeping brain behaves as if it's remembering something, study shows

UCLA researchers have for the first time measured the activity of a brain region known to be involved in learning, memory and Alzheimer's disease during sleep. They discovered that this part of the brain ...

Neuroscience created Oct 07, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (18) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

New study confirms that mom's love good for child's brain

School-age children whose mothers nurtured them early in life have brains with a larger hippocampus, a key structure important to learning, memory and response to stress.

Psychology & Psychiatry created Jan 30, 2012 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (11) | comments 3 | with audio podcast

Going places: Rat brain 'GPS' maps routes to rewards

While studying rats' ability to navigate familiar territory, Johns Hopkins scientists found that one particular brain structure uses remembered spatial information to imagine routes the rats then follow. ...

Neuroscience created Apr 17, 2013 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Study links hippocampus with unconscious bias

(Medical Xpress)—A new US study into brain function has found links between preferences and the regions of the brain involved in connecting new memories to old ones. The associations formed provide shortcuts ...

Neuroscience created Oct 12, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast report

Epilepsy sends differentiated neurons on the run

(Medical Xpress)—The smooth operation of the brain requires a certain robustness to fluctuations in its home within the body. At the same time, its extraordinary power derives from an activity structure ...

Neuroscience created Mar 29, 2013 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (5) | comments 0 | with audio podcast report

Cerebellar neurons needed to navigate in the dark

(Medical Xpress) -- A new study by scientists in France has revealed that the cerebellum region of the brain plays an important role in the ability to navigate when visual cues are absent, and is the first ...

Neuroscience created Oct 21, 2011 | popularity 4 / 5 (3) | comments 0 | with audio podcast report

Major study finds memory in adults impacted by versions of four genes

Two research studies, co-led by UC Davis neurologist Charles DeCarli and conducted by an international team that included more than 80 scientists at 71 institutions in eight countries, has advanced understanding ...

Genetics created Apr 15, 2012 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (6) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Brain rhythm associated with learning also linked to running speed, study shows

(Medical Xpress) -- Rhythms in the brain that are associated with learning become stronger as the body moves faster, UCLA neurophysicists report in a new study.

Neuroscience created Jun 27, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (7) | comments 7 | with audio podcast

Researchers reveal new more precise method of performing electroconvulsive therapy

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is the most effective acute treatment for severe major depression. However, even with newer forms of ECT, there remains a significant risk of adverse cognitive effects, particularly memory ...

Psychology & Psychiatry created May 06, 2013 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Hippocampus

The hippocampus is a major component of the brains of humans and other mammals. It belongs to the limbic system and plays important roles in long-term memory and spatial navigation. Like the cerebral cortex, with which it is closely associated, it is a paired structure, with mirror-image halves in the left and right sides of the brain. In humans and other primates, the hippocampus is located inside the medial temporal lobe, beneath the cortical surface. Its curved shape reminded early anatomists of the horns of a ram (Cornu Ammonis), or a seahorse. The name, in fact, was taken by the sixteenth century anatomist Julius Caesar Aranzi from the Greek word for seahorse (Greek: ιππος, hippos = horse, καμπος, kampos = sea monster).

In Alzheimer's disease the hippocampus is one of the first regions of the brain to suffer damage; memory problems and disorientation appear among the first symptoms. Damage to the hippocampus can also result from oxygen starvation (hypoxia), encephalitis, or medial temporal lobe epilepsy. People with extensive hippocampal damage may experience amnesia—the inability to form or retain new memories.

In rodents, the hippocampus has been studied extensively as part of the brain system responsible for spatial memory and navigation. Many neurons in the rat and mouse hippocampus respond as place cells: that is, they fire bursts of action potentials when the animal passes through a specific part of its environment. Hippocampal place cells interact extensively with head direction cells, whose activity acts as an inertial compass, and with grid cells in the neighboring entorhinal cortex.

Because of its densely packed layers of neurons, the hippocampus has frequently been used as a model system for studying neurophysiology. The form of neural plasticity known as long-term potentiation (LTP) was first discovered to occur in the hippocampus and has often been studied in this structure. LTP is widely believed to be one of the main neural mechanisms by which memory is stored in the brain.

For more information about Hippocampus, read the full article at Wikipedia.
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