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.

Research shows mutation in Prox1 gene may lead to memory, learning problems

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital investigators showed a gene named Prox1 is a key player in normal development of a brain structure crucial for learning and memory and remains active throughout life, nurturing the cells vital for making new memories.This study focused on a small region of the hippocampus known as the dentate gyrus, a brain structure needed for memory and learning that is home to the subgranular zone where the neural stem cells destined to become granule cells are housed. The dentate gyrus is one of two regions of the adult brain where neural stem cells continue to produce the precursor cells that ultimately differentiate into neurons.

18 Aug 2010

Recent research on schizophrenia published in journal Current Directions in Psychological Science

It has been nearly a century since the term "schizophrenia" was first used to describe what was then considered a hopeless and incurable disorder of thought and emotion. Schizophrenia is still baffling to both scientists and the general public, but it is no longer considered hopeless. Significant advances have been made on several fronts in fathoming and combating this debilitating mental illness-from genetics to neuroscience to the psychosocial aspects of the disorder.

16 Aug 2010

New research with agitated monkeys may help predict childhood anxiety & depression

According to the latest discovery from the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health, there may be a possible link between brain activity and childhood anxiety.

12 Aug 2010

Increased brain activity predicts anxious temperament in young primates

A new study focused on anxiety and brain activity pinpoints the brain regions that are relevant to developing childhood anxiety. The findings, published in the Aug. 12 edition of the journal Nature, may lead to new strategies for early detection and treatment of at-risk children.

12 Aug 2010

Researchers identify perforant path brain passage associated with Alzheimer's disease

With the help of volunteers aged 18 to 89, UC Irvine researchers have identified for the first time in humans a long-hidden part of the brain called the perforant path. Scientists have struggled for decades to locate the tiny passage, which is believed to deteriorate gradually as part of normal aging and far more quickly due to Alzheimer's disease.

11 Aug 2010

Scientists identify chemical system effective in cocaine-addiction cure

UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have identified a chemical system in the brain that reacts differently in cocaine addicts, findings that could result in new treatment options for individuals addicted to the drug."We found that the amount of blood flow in areas of the brain known to be involved in the rewarding effects of cocaine and craving was different in cocaine addicts, compared with healthy subjects," said Dr. Bryon Adinoff, professor of psychiatry at UT Southwestern and lead author of a study that appeared in Neuropsychopharmacology. "Now we have a new target for pharmacologic intervention."

11 Aug 2010

Study finds 'grid cells' that help brain map locations outside hippocampus

"Grid cells," which help the brain map locations, have been found for the first time outside of the hippocampus in the rat brain, according to new research from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). The finding should help further our understanding of how the brain generates the internal maps that help us remember where we have been and how to get to where we want to go.

10 Aug 2010

University of Pennsylvania announces recipients of 2010 Templeton Positive Neuroscience Awards

The Positive Psychology Center of the University of Pennsylvania and the John Templeton Foundation have announced the recipients of the 2010 Templeton Positive Neuroscience Awards, $2.9 million given to 15 new research projects at the intersection of neuroscience and positive psychology.

5 Aug 2010

Other brain regions compensates loss of amygdale: Research

Many neuroscientists believe the loss of the brain region known as the amygdala would result in the brain's inability to form new memories with emotional content. New UCLA research indicates this is not so and suggests that when one brain region is damaged, other regions can compensate.

3 Aug 2010

Tel Aviv University discovers molecular power behind memory

Neuroscientists have long wondered how individual connections between brain cells remain diverse and "fit" enough for storing new memories. Reported in the prestigious science journal Neuron, a new study led by Dr. Inna Slutsky of the Sackler School of Medicine at Tel Aviv University describes what makes some memories stick.

30 Jul 2010

VA approves $2.8M for Gulf War Veterans' illness research program

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has approved $2.8 million to fund three new research projects that focus on testing or developing new treatments for illnesses affecting Veterans who served in the Gulf War 1990-1991. The research incorporates recommendations of the department's Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses Task Force.

22 Jul 2010

Penn researchers reverse cognitive decline in fruit flies with Alzheimer's gene mutation

Investigators have found that fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) males -- in which the activity of an Alzheimer's disease protein is reduced by 50 percent -- show impairments in learning and memory as they age. What's more, the researchers were able to prevent the age-related deficits by treating the flies with drugs such as lithium, or by genetic manipulations that reduced nerve-cell signaling.

16 Jul 2010

New research studies presented at Alzheimer's Association International Conference

The primary therapeutic target in Alzheimer's disease has been the beta amyloid peptide, which clusters outside cells in the brain to form sticky clumps known as plaques. Recently, more attention has been given to the tau protein, which aggregates inside the brain cells of people with Alzheimer's, forming neurofibrillary tangles. Precisely how these proteins interact in causing the disease is unclear.

14 Jul 2010

Hormone leptin reduces food intake by activating hippocampus: Research

Research to be presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior, the foremost society for research into all aspects of eating and drinking behavior, finds that the hormone leptin reduces food intake, in part, by activating the hippocampus, an area of the brain that controls learning and memory function. Leptin is a hormone released from fat cells that acts on the brain to inhibit feeding.

13 Jul 2010

Exercise can reverse effects of early-life trauma

Athletes have long known about the natural “high” exercise can induce. Now, for the first time, medical researchers have demonstrated that exercise can reverse the effects in the brain of psychological trauma experienced early in life.

13 Jul 2010

Adeona completes $1 million equity financing and provides update on Zinthionein ZC clinical study

Adeona Pharmaceuticals, Inc., announced today that on July 6, 2010, it completed an equity financing of $1 million with a single institutional investor, Seaside 88, L.P. The financing involved the sale of 1,212,121 registered shares of common stock and no warrants. Enclave Capital served as placement agent and will receive a 7% cash commission and 5-year warrants to acquire 60,606 shares of Adeona at $1.32 per share. The use of proceeds is intended for general corporate purposes.

6 Jul 2010

Research may provide key to understanding interplay between exercise, aging and neurogenesis

Stem cells in the brain remain dormant until called upon to divide and make more neurons. However, little has been known about the molecular guards that keep them quiet.

2 Jul 2010

Imbalance in neuroendocrine system linked to depression in MS patients: Study

Now, in the first such study in living humans, researchers at UCLA suggest a cause, and it's not psychological, but physical: atrophy of a specific region of the hippocampus, a critical part of the brain involved in mood and memory, among other functions.

2 Jul 2010

New research identifies memory and brain scan as best tests for predicting Alzheimer's disease

New research has identified the memory and brain scan tests that appear to predict best whether a person with cognitive problems might develop Alzheimer's disease. The research is published in the June 30, 2010, online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

1 Jul 2010

Sleep enhances ability to remember to do something in future

When it comes to executing items on tomorrow's to-do list, it's best to think it over, then "sleep on it," say psychologists at Washington University in St. Louis.