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.

Discovery of molecular mechanism behind fear

Researchers from MIT's Picower Institute for Learning and Memory have uncovered a molecular mechanism that governs the formation of fears stemming from traumatic events.

16 Jul 2007

Children with Tourette's better at mental grammar skills

Children with Tourette's syndrome may have to put up with some unwanted movement and verbal tics, but neuroscientists at Georgetown University Medical Center and the Kennedy Krieger Institute have found that they are much quicker at processing certain mental grammar skills than are children without the disorder.

16 Jul 2007

Emotional memories can be suppressed with practice

A new University of Colorado at Boulder study shows people have the ability to suppress emotional memories with practice, which has implications for those suffering from conditions ranging from post-traumatic stress disorder to depression.

13 Jul 2007

3-D microscopic views of tiny mouse brains available online

A multi-institutional consortium including Duke University has created startlingly crisp 3-D microscopic views of tiny mouse brains - unveiled layer by layer - by extending the capabilities of conventional magnetic resonance imaging.

10 Jul 2007

Researchers discover brain pathway of depression in rats

Scientists' hunt for the cause of depression has implicated so many suspects and found so many treatments with different mechanisms that the condition remains an enigma.

9 Jul 2007

New insight into neural stem cells

Scientists have discovered that adult neural stem cells, which exist in the brain throughout life, are not a single, homogeneous group.

9 Jul 2007

Exercise stimulates the production of new brain cells

Exercise has a similar effect to antidepressants on depression. This has been shown by previous research. Now Astrid Bjornebekk at Karolinska Institutet has explained how this can happen: exercise stimulates the production of new brain cells.

29 Jun 2007

Gene variant increases risk for alcoholism following childhood abuse

Girls who suffered childhood sexual abuse are more likely to develop alcoholism later in life if they possess a particular variant of a gene involved in the body's response to stress, according to a new study led by researchers at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

27 Jun 2007

Deja vu feeling all in the brain

Scientists in the United States say they have discovered a part of the brain responsible for the feeling of deja vu.

11 Jun 2007

New research shows promise for memory-related disorders

In today's fast-moving world of look-alike hotel rooms and comparable corridors, it can take a bit of thinking to answer this simple question.

8 Jun 2007

Neural basis for anxiety behaviour discovered

People who suffer from anxiety tend to interpret ambiguous situations, situations that could potentially be dangerous but not necessarily so, as threatening.

5 Jun 2007

Modafinil (Provigil) alleviates post-chemotherapy fogginess

A drug described by some people as a genius pill for enhancing cognitive function provided relief to a small group of Rochester breast cancer survivors who were coping with a side effect known as chemo-brain, according to a University of Rochester Medical Center study.

5 Jun 2007

Brain inflammation may actually be a friend for Alzheimer's patients

Inflammation in the brain may not be so bad after all when it comes to Alzheimer's disease.

3 Jun 2007

Research reveals a new mechanism of learning in the brain

Mice genetically engineered to lack a single enzyme in their brains are more adept at learning than their normal cousins, and are quicker to figure out that their environment has changed, a team led by researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center has found.

28 May 2007

New adult brain cells may be central to lifelong learning

The steady formation of new brain cells in adults may represent more than merely a patching up of aging brains, a new study has shown.

24 May 2007

New adult nerves have a deeper role than simply replacing dead ones

You may not be able to relive your youth, but part of your brain can. Johns Hopkins researchers have found that newly made nerves in an adult brain's learning center experience a one-month period when they are just as active as the nerves in a developing child.

24 May 2007