News tagged with hippocampus

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

As time goes by, it gets tougher to 'just remember this'

The older we get, the more difficulty we seem to have remembering things. We reassure ourselves that our brains' "hard drives" are too full to handle the new information that comes in daily. But a Johns Hopkins ...

Neuroscience created May 13, 2011 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (19) | comments 5 | with audio podcast

Restoring memory, repairing damaged brains

Scientists have developed a way to turn memories on and off -- literally with the flip of a switch.

Neuroscience created Jun 17, 2011 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (15) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Brain circuits connected with memory discovered

(Medical Xpress) -- A new study published last week in Science reveals the discovery of a brain pathway that helps us link events that happen close together and play a role in memories.

Neuroscience created Nov 07, 2011 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (11) | comments 0 | with audio podcast report

Researchers discover sleep mechanism critical to memory consolidation and find that Ambien enhances the process

(Medical Xpress)—A team of sleep researchers led by UC Riverside psychologist Sara C. Mednick has confirmed the mechanism that enables the brain to consolidate memory and found that a commonly prescribed ...

Neuroscience created Mar 12, 2013 | popularity 4 / 5 (13) | comments 7 | 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

Brain's map of space falls flat when it comes to altitude

Animal's brains are only roughly aware of how high-up they are in space, meaning that in terms of altitude the brain's 'map' of space is surprisingly flat, according to new research.

Medical research created Aug 07, 2011 | popularity 4.1 / 5 (10) | comments 4 | 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

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

Discovery of gatekeeper nerve cells explains the effect of nicotine on learning and memory

Swedish researchers at Uppsala University have, together with Brazilian collaborators, discovered a new group of nerve cells that regulate processes of learning and memory. These cells act as gatekeepers and carry a receptor ...

Neuroscience created Oct 07, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (7) | comments 4 | with audio podcast

High levels of glutamate in brain may kick-start schizophrenia

An excess of the brain neurotransmitter glutamate may cause a transition to psychosis in people who are at risk for schizophrenia, reports a study from investigators at Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) published ...

Neuroscience created Apr 18, 2013 | popularity 5 / 5 (7) | 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

Brain structure adapts to environmental change

Scientists have known for years that neurogenesis takes place throughout adulthood in the hippocampus of the mammalian brain. Now Columbia researchers have found that under stressful conditions, neural stem cells in the adult ...

Neuroscience created Jun 13, 2011 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (7) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

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 4.3 / 5 (7) | comments 6 | with audio podcast

Removing molecule speeds relief from depression

Getting rid of a protein increases the birth of new nerve cells and shortens the time it takes for antidepressants to take effect, according to an animal study in the March 7 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience. The protei ...

Neuroscience created Mar 06, 2012 | popularity 4.1 / 5 (7) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

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.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.