Hippocampus News and Research

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The hippocampus is a part of the forebrain, located in the medial temporal lobe. It belongs to the limbic system and plays major roles in short term memory and spatial navigation. Humans and other mammals have two hippocampi, one in each side of the brain.

Researchers identify mechanism by which cannabis affects working memory

A deterioration of working memory is observed in people who consume drugs containing cannabinoid compounds found in cannabis leaves and buds. A team led by Giovanni Marsicano in collaboration with a team led by Xia Zhang, has recently identified the mechanism by which these substances affect working memory.

3 Mar 2012

Memory training strategy can help patients with MCI

If someone has trouble remembering where the car keys or the cheese grater are, new research shows that a memory training strategy can help. Memory training can even re-engage the hippocampus, part of the brain critical for memory formation, the results suggest.

2 Mar 2012

HDAC2 enzyme could be a potential target for new Alzheimer's drugs

MIT neuroscientists have shown that an enzyme overproduced in the brains of Alzheimer's patients creates a blockade that shuts off genes necessary to form new memories. Furthermore, by inhibiting that enzyme in mice, the researchers were able to reverse Alzheimer's symptoms.

1 Mar 2012

Researchers discover mechanism by which lead alters nerve cells in the brain

Exposure to lead wreaks havoc in the brain, with consequences that include lower IQ and reduced potential for learning. But the precise mechanism by which lead alters nerve cells in the brain has largely remained unknown.

1 Mar 2012

Alzheimer's disease drugs may act like a bad electrician

Alzheimer's disease drugs now being tested in clinical trials may have potentially adverse side effects, according to new Northwestern Medicine research. A study with mice suggests the drugs could act like a bad electrician, causing neurons to be miswired and interfering with their ability to send messages to the brain.

29 Feb 2012

D-serine improves depressed rats' brain plasticity and memory

During depression, the brain becomes less plastic and adaptable, and thus less able to perform certain tasks, like storing memories. Researchers at the Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet have now traced the brain's lower plasticity to reduced functionality in its support cells, and believe that learning more about these cells can pave the way for radical new therapies for depression.

29 Feb 2012

Clazosentan drug shows promise against TBI in rats

A new drug is showing promise in shielding against the harmful effects of traumatic brain injury (TBI) in rats, according to a study that was released today and will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology's 64th Annual Meeting in New Orleans April 21 to April 28, 2012.

19 Feb 2012

Deep brain stimulation helps improve memory and cognitive skills in epilepsy patients

Researchers have found that deep brain stimulation by sending in electric shocks to a part of the brain that plays a key role in memory improved people's ability to learn. This could raise hope for patients of Alzheimer’s.

12 Feb 2012

New link between beta-arrestin and short-term memory

Biomedical scientists at the University of California, Riverside have identified a new link between a protein called beta-arrestin and short-term memory that could open new doors for the therapeutic treatment of neurological disorders, particularly Alzheimer's disease.

10 Feb 2012

Deep-brain stimulation of entorhinal cortex can strengthen memory

Ever gone to the movies and forgotten where you parked the car? New UCLA research may one day help you improve your memory.

9 Feb 2012

People seem to switch navigational strategies with age

A Wayne State University researcher believes studying people's ability to find their way around may help explain why loss of mental capacity occurs with age.

6 Feb 2012

Scientists reveal novel mechanism underpinning age-dependent changes to cognitive abilities

New findings, led by neuroscientists at the University of Bristol and published this week in the journal Neurobiology of Aging, reveal a novel mechanism through which the brain may become more reluctant to function as we grow older.

2 Feb 2012

Abnormal tau protein propagates along linked brain circuits

For decades, researchers have debated whether Alzheimer's disease starts independently in vulnerable brain regions at different times, or if it begins in one region and then spreads to neuroanatomically connected areas. A new study by Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) researchers strongly supports the latter, demonstrating that abnormal tau protein, a key feature of the neurofibrillary tangles seen in the brains of those with Alzheimer's, propagates along linked brain circuits, "jumping" from neuron to neuron.

2 Feb 2012

Link between maternal nurturing and size of hippocampus in healthy children

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. The new research, by child psychiatrists and neuroscientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, is the first to show that changes in this critical region of children's brain anatomy are linked to a mother's nurturing.

31 Jan 2012

Potential role of omega-3 fatty acid in preventing psychological consequences of accidents

A report in the 5th 2011 issue of Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics suggests the potential role of omega-3 fatty acid in preventing the psychological consequences of an accident.

23 Jan 2012

RNF123 gene may play a role in major depression

Psychiatric disorders can be described on many levels, the most traditional of which are subjective descriptions of the experience of being depressed and the use of rating scales that quantify depressive symptoms. Over the past two decades, research has developed other strategies for describing the biological underpinnings of depression, including volumetric brain measurements using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and the patterns of gene expression in white blood cells.

4 Jan 2012

Glia cells also regulate learning and memory

Glia cells, named for the Greek word for "glue," hold the brain's neurons together and protect the cells that determine our thoughts and behaviors, but scientists have long puzzled over their prominence in the activities of the brain dedicated to learning and memory.

30 Dec 2011

Silent strokes linked to memory loss in the elderly

New research links 'silent strokes,' or small spots of dead brain cells, found in about one out of four older adults to memory loss in the elderly. The study is published in the January 3, 2012, print issue of Neurology-, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

29 Dec 2011

Decision support tool for objective diagnostics of Alzheimer's

European PredictAD project, lead by Principal Scientist Jyrki Lötjönen from VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, has developed a decision support tool for objective diagnostics of Alzheimer's disease.

15 Dec 2011

Small genetic changes may increase risk of schizophrenia

Carrying single DNA letter changes from two different genes together may increase the risk of developing schizophrenia, Johns Hopkins researchers reported in the November 16 issue of Neuron.

15 Dec 2011