News tagged with hippocampus
Meditation increases brain gray matter
Push-ups, crunches, gyms, personal trainers -- people have many strategies for building bigger muscles and stronger bones. But what can one do to build a bigger brain? Meditate.
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
May 12, 2009 |
4.4 / 5 (38) |
13
Why antidepressants don't work for so many
More than half the people who take antidepressants for depression never get relief. Why? Because the cause of depression has been oversimplified and drugs designed to treat it aim at the wrong target, according to new research ...
Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry
Oct 23, 2009 |
5 / 5 (24) |
4
Research uncovers how antidepressants actually work
(PhysOrg.com) -- Australian researchers at UQ's Queensland Brain Institute have uncovered how antidepressants stimulate the brain to improve a person's mood.
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
Feb 18, 2010 |
4.7 / 5 (22) |
18
|
A midday nap markedly boosts the brain's learning capacity
If you see a student dozing in the library or a co-worker catching 40 winks in her cubicle, don't roll your eyes. New research from the University of California, Berkeley, shows that an hour's nap can dramatically boost and ...
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
Feb 21, 2010 |
5 / 5 (18) |
0
|
As we sleep, speedy brain waves boost our ability to learn (w/ Video)
(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists have long puzzled over the many hours we spend in light, dreamless slumber. But a new study from the University of California, Berkeley, suggests we're busy recharging our brain's ...
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
Mar 08, 2011 |
4.6 / 5 (19) |
6
|
Alzheimer's researchers find high protein diet shrinks brain
One of the many reasons to pick a low-calorie, low-fat diet rich in vegetables, fruits, and fish is that a host of epidemiological studies have suggested that such a diet may delay the onset or slow the progression of Alzheimer's ...
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
Oct 20, 2009 |
4.7 / 5 (16) |
4
Smart rat 'Hobbie-J' produced by over-expressing a gene that helps brain cells communicate
Over-expressing a gene that lets brain cells communicate just a fraction of a second longer makes a smarter rat, report researchers from the Medical College of Georgia and East China Normal University.
Oct 19, 2009 |
4.9 / 5 (15) |
5
Moderate aerobic exercise in older adults shown to modify brain hippocampus, improve memory
A new study shows that one year of moderate physical exercise can increase the size of the brain's hippocampus in older adults, leading to an improvement in spatial memory.
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
Jan 31, 2011 |
4.8 / 5 (14) |
1
|
Light at night causes changes in brain linked to depression
Exposure to even dim light at night is enough to cause physical changes in the brains of hamsters that may be associated with depression, a new study shows.
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
Nov 17, 2010 |
4.6 / 5 (14) |
12
|
CIA's 'Enhanced Interrogation' Techniques Were Counterproductive
(PhysOrg.com) -- The author of a new report suggests the belief that harsh interrogation and torture techniques are effective is a form of folk neuroscience that is not supported by scientific evidence, and does not fit with ...
Study reveals how taking an active role in learning enhances memory
Good news for control freaks! New research confirms that having some authority over how one takes in new information significantly enhances one's ability to remember it. The study, in the journal Nature Ne ...
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
Dec 06, 2010 |
4.5 / 5 (11) |
0
|
Pot shot: Scientists find cannabis trigger for forgetfulness
Researchers on Sunday said they had pinpointed the biochemical pathway by which cannabis causes memory loss in mice.
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
Aug 02, 2009 |
4.9 / 5 (10) |
5
Sleep helps build long-term memories
(PhysOrg.com) -- Experts have long suspected that part of the process of turning fleeting short-term memories into lasting long-term memories occurs during sleep. Now, researchers at the RIKEN-MIT Center for ...
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
Jun 24, 2009 |
4.8 / 5 (9) |
1
Acute stress leaves epigenetic marks on the hippocampus
(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists are learning that the dynamic regulation of genes -- as much as the genes themselves -- shapes the fate of organisms. Now the discovery of a new epigenetic mechanism regulating genes in the brain ...
Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry
Nov 24, 2009 |
4.7 / 5 (9) |
0
Neurobiologist proposes 'The end of sex as we once knew it'
(PhysOrg.com) -- Women are not from Venus any more than men are from Mars. But even though both sexes are perfectly terrestrial beings, they are not lacking in other differences. And not only in their reproductive organs ...
Medicine & Health / Medical research
Feb 02, 2009 |
4.1 / 5 (10) |
4
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.