https://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. A preclinical study published in Nature has found evidence that the hippocampus, the brain region that stores memory, also reorganizes memories to anticipate future outcomes. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-01-hippocampus-memories-rewards.html Thu, 29 Jan 2026 15:04:55 EST news688921441 A new study has revealed that neural inhibition and balanced neural activity in a specific area of the brain is required for recognition memory. The findings could help provide better understanding of cognitive disorders, including schizophrenia, dementia, and age-related memory impairments. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-12-neural-inhibition-hippocampus-crucial-recognition.html Thu, 11 Dec 2025 10:49:15 EST news684672533 In a JNeurosci paper, Tian-Ming Gao and colleagues, from Southern Medical University, explored how adenosine triphosphate (ATP) signaling relates to depression and anxiety using male mice. ATP is a molecule that not only provides energy but also supports communication between neurons. The researchers focused on ATP signaling in a brain region implicated in depression called the hippocampus. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-11-mouse-reveals-molecular-mechanism-underlie.html Mon, 24 Nov 2025 13:00:04 EST news683197982 Rice University bioengineers have demonstrated a nonsurgical way to quiet a seizure-relevant brain circuit in an animal model. The team used low-intensity focused ultrasound to briefly open the blood-brain barrier (BBB) in the hippocampus, delivered an engineered gene therapy only to that region and later flipped an on-demand "dimmer switch" with an oral drug. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-11-nonsurgical-treatment-seizure.html Tue, 11 Nov 2025 16:00:03 EST news682099201 Aging is particularly harsh on the hippocampus—the brain region responsible for learning and memory. Now, researchers at UC San Francisco have identified a protein that's at the center of this decline. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-08-aging-harsh-hippocampus-scientists-protein.html Tue, 19 Aug 2025 11:16:03 EDT news674820961 Researchers at the UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology find that the hippocampus sends signals to the visual cortex to predict what we are about to see. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-06-hippocampus-reveals-brains.html Mon, 09 Jun 2025 11:47:03 EDT news668688422 Researchers at the University of Tsukuba investigated whether monoamine neurotransmitters, such as dopamine, are involved in hippocampal activation even during light exercise. Dopamine secreted from the ventral tegmental area of the brainstem and noradrenaline secreted from the locus coeruleus were hypothesized to be involved in a brain neural circuit that regulates hippocampal activation during light exercise. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-05-dopamine-noradrenaline-linked-hippocampal.html Sat, 17 May 2025 12:30:01 EDT news666617382 Researchers have discovered that increased blood flow leads to stiffness in the hippocampus, a region of the brain that plays important roles in learning and memory. The hippocampus is one of the first areas in the brain affected by Alzheimer's disease, a brain disorder that erodes memory and thinking skills, as well as the ability to do daily tasks. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-04-exploring-link-blood-brain-stiffness.html Mon, 07 Apr 2025 17:11:03 EDT news663264661 The high comorbidity of type 2 diabetes (T2D) with psychiatric or neurodegenerative disorders points to a need for understanding what links these diseases. A potential link is the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). The ACC supports behaviors related to cognition and emotions and is involved in some T2D-associated diseases, like mood disorders and Alzheimer's disease (AD). https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-03-diabetes-suppress-brain-reward-rat.html Mon, 24 Mar 2025 13:00:02 EDT news662025241 The hippocampal formation is a group of brain regions, including the hippocampus and some other structures closely connected to it. This set of brain regions is known to support various important brain functions, including the consolidation of memories, experience-based reasoning, decision-making and spatial navigation (i.e., the ability to map and navigate specific environments). https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-03-memory-composition-hippocampal-replay-insights.html Sun, 23 Mar 2025 09:00:01 EDT news661879954 Scientists at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST), the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, and the University of Tokyo have found a mathematical connection between spatial navigation and language processing, creating a model called "Disentangled Successor Information" (DSI). https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-03-links-spatial-language-brain.html Tue, 11 Mar 2025 13:09:03 EDT news660917341 Emerging evidence suggests that lycopene—a natural plant extract—may have antidepressant properties. New research published in Food Science & Nutrition reveals the mechanisms behind its antidepressant effects. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-02-lycopene-effective-antidepressant.html Wed, 05 Feb 2025 10:10:53 EST news657972648 A team of scientists from the Center for Neuroscience Imaging Research (CNIR) at the Institute for Basic Science (IBS) has unveiled how the hippocampus orchestrates multiple memory processes, including encoding new information, forming memories, and retrieving them. The study is published in Nature Communications. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-02-hippocampus-memory-encoding.html Mon, 03 Feb 2025 10:13:03 EST news657799981 Inflammation in the hippocampus—the brain's memory center—significantly alters motivation and behavior in mice, including food-seeking behavior, with notable differences between males and females, a study reveals. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-12-brain-inflammation-affects-behavior-differently.html Thu, 19 Dec 2024 06:56:44 EST news653813798 In a new study, researchers have developed a comprehensive in silico model of the rat hippocampal CA1 region. This model is unique as it integrates a wide range of experimental data, from the synaptic level to the network level, providing a holistic view of the hippocampal function. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-11-silico-rat-hippocampal-ca1-region.html Tue, 05 Nov 2024 14:00:01 EST news650010329 A new study shows how individual brain cells in the hippocampus respond to pronouns. "This may help us unravel how we remember what we read," say the authors. Their research is published in the journal Science. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-09-pronouns-memory-region-human-brain.html Mon, 30 Sep 2024 10:02:04 EDT news646909322 While everyone knows that a good night's sleep restores energy, a new Cornell University study finds it resets another vital function: memory. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-08-resets-neurons-memories-day.html Thu, 15 Aug 2024 14:00:01 EDT news642929041 RIKEN neuroscientists have gained new insights into how the hippocampus generates and sustains oscillations, which will be helpful for informing models on how the brain region works. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-08-hippocampus-generates-sustains-oscillations.html Thu, 01 Aug 2024 09:10:05 EDT news641721995 The mechanism by which our brains record events in stereo—with one channel recording details and another recording general impressions—has been elicited by two RIKEN neuroscientists. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-07-hippocampus-dual-pathways-memory-storage.html Thu, 04 Jul 2024 10:20:01 EDT news639306651 Value-based decision-making is the process through which humans choose between options associated with different costs or efforts, as well as rewards. These choices include, for instance, selecting different products at the grocery stores or making substantial lifestyle changes to accomplish a specific goal. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-06-human-hippocampus-contributes-based-decision.html Fri, 14 Jun 2024 07:30:02 EDT news637492445 Some people with tough-to-treat epilepsy might benefit if doctors target a brain region newly linked to the disorder, a new study suggests. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-04-brain-key-easing-tough-epilepsy.html Wed, 17 Apr 2024 11:04:18 EDT news632570653 The hippocampus—a seahorse-shaped region of the brain that plays a particularly important role in cognitive aging and memory function—has been studied as a singular region for several years. However, until now, there has been a gap in understanding the factors underlying age—or disease-related changes between the different regions of the hippocampus, or subfields. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-03-brain-blood-neurological-disorders.html Thu, 07 Mar 2024 13:01:04 EST news629038861 People with aphantasia lack visual imagination. Researchers from the University Hospital Bonn (UKB), the University of Bonn and the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) investigated how the lack of mental imagery affects long-term memory. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-02-autobiographical-memory-aphantasia.html Tue, 27 Feb 2024 14:40:56 EST news628267250 Researchers at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus have discovered that odors stimulate specific brain cells that may play a role in rapid "go/no-go" decision-making. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-02-odors-prompt-brain-cells-decisions.html Tue, 06 Feb 2024 15:41:48 EST news626456504 Obesity is a major risk factor for cardiovascular metabolic diseases and neurodegenerative diseases such as dementia. Long-term exercise improves memory and spatial cognition, reduces age-related cognitive decline, and maintains brain volume, but the mechanisms are not fully understood. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-12-mice-regular-physical-obesity-induced-cognitive.html Fri, 01 Dec 2023 09:04:02 EST news620643841 Researchers at The University of Queensland have identified new regions of the brain crucial to the formation of long-term memory. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-09-reveals-brain-networks-critical-memory.html Thu, 21 Sep 2023 11:04:27 EDT news614513065 A team of Japanese neurologists and physiologists has found that momentarily suspending breathing in mice during a learning exercise can inhibit memory retention. In their study, reported in the journal Nature Communications, the group genetically altered test mice to control their breathing. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-08-patterns-memory-retention-mice.html Mon, 14 Aug 2023 10:30:01 EDT news611224155 How useful a memory is for future situations determines where it resides in the brain, according to a new theory proposed by researchers at HHMI's Janelia Research Campus and collaborators at UCL. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-07-theory-brain-memories.html Thu, 20 Jul 2023 15:54:26 EDT news609087264 Anosognosia is a condition in which a patient is unaware of their neurological deficit or psychiatric condition. Visual anosognosia, also called Anton syndrome, is associated with complete cortical blindness and unawareness of vision loss. Researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital, a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system, sought to identify brain network connections associated with anosognosia. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-06-brain-network-anosognosia.html Fri, 09 Jun 2023 14:21:03 EDT news605539262 Researchers at the Neural Computation Institute of Ruhr University Bochum, Germany, have constructed a computer model that learns spatial information in a pattern similar to that of rodents. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-05-ai-reveals-brain.html Tue, 09 May 2023 09:10:06 EDT news602842201