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.

Smart prodrug targets Alzheimer's disease using hydrogen peroxide signals

A substance that worsens dementia has become a "switch" that initiates treatment. KAIST researchers have developed a new therapeutic approach that uses hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂), a reactive oxygen species that damages cells and increases in the brains of patients with Alzheimer's disease, to activate a drug selectively in diseased brain tissue.

1 Jul 2026

Scientists map how chronic stress alters somatostatin levels in the brain

Consider the brake. Not the engine, which gets all the attention, but the brake, the quiet thing that decides how fast a system is allowed to go.

1 Jul 2026

Blood biomarker may predict Alzheimer's progression differently in men

A blood test does not lie, exactly. It reports a number. The question raised by a new mini-review in Brain Medicine, which gathers and weighs a decade of scattered findings, is whether clinicians have been reading the same number in two different ways without realizing it.

30 Jun 2026

A night without sleep alters neural connections in human brains

A night without sleep produced increased markers of connections between brain cells, showing that sleep in humans may be important for restoring cellular balance in the brain, according to a study published June 23rd in the open access journal PLOS Biology by David Elmenhorst from the Forschungszentrum Jülich Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, and colleagues.

23 Jun 2026

Fish oil supplements show little benefit for Alzheimer's prevention

Americans spend more than $1 billion annually on fish oil supplements, in part due to purported cognitive benefits from the omega-3 fatty acids they contain, essential nutrients that help form brain cell connections needed for cognition.

18 Jun 2026

The cerebellum may help aging brains stay sharper

A large MRI study of more than 47,000 adults found that cerebellar aging is uneven, with posterior association regions and some motor-related areas showing steeper age-related changes. Larger cerebellar volumes were linked to better cognitive performance, supporting a threshold-reserve model in which the cerebellum may help sustain cognition before Alzheimer’s pathology becomes widespread.

11 Jun 2026

Brain histamine neurons control moment-to-moment memory accessibility

The same memory can feel vivid and accessible one moment, yet stubbornly out of reach the next - even when the memory itself remains intact.

11 Jun 2026

New study maps early genetic disruptions in Rett syndrome

To better understand what drives the emergence of symptoms in Rett syndrome, researchers at Baylor College of Medicine and the Duncan Neurological Research Institute (Duncan NRI) at Texas Children's Hospital took a closer look at brain cells in mice modeling Rett syndrome before symptoms appeared.

10 Jun 2026

Large study uncovers brain network differences in bipolar disorder

New research from the Mark and Mary Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute (Stevens INI) at the Keck School of Medicine of USC has discovered subtle but widespread differences in the brain's communication networks in people with bipolar disorder, offering new insight into how illness severity and treatment may relate to brain wiring.

9 Jun 2026

Female brain forms fear memories through unique molecular process

Women are twice as likely as men to develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) - and new research may offer a biological clue as to why.

8 Jun 2026

Histamine boost helps the brain remember, decide, and learn from loss

Pitolisant, a histamine H3 receptor inverse agonist, improved recognition memory, working memory performance, and reinforcement learning in healthy adults. The findings suggest that histamine helps shape how the brain stabilizes new memories, accumulates evidence for decisions, and avoids overreacting to negative outcomes.

3 Jun 2026

Study discovers memory switchboard that protects past knowledge

The brain may reuse some cells to store many different memories without mixing them up with or erasing older memories, a new study in mice suggests.

3 Jun 2026

How dysregulated collagen IV homeostasis causes cerebral microbleeds

Millions of older adults have tiny brain hemorrhages called cerebral microbleeds, which are strongly associated with dementia, cognitive decline, and stroke.

2 Jun 2026

Grant funds research into molecular memories behind exaggerated fear

Experiencing a traumatic event sometimes produces long-lasting biological changes that can lead to an exaggerated fear response to future stressful events, such as what occurs in individuals with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

29 May 2026

UCLA researchers identify brain circuit controlling memory organization

When a person has a new experience, their brain faces a subtle but critical decision: should this experience be categorized with other stored memories, or should it be filed away as its own new memory? Getting it right allows the brain to help people navigate the world.

28 May 2026

Virtual reality navigation deficits predict future brain volume loss

Alzheimer's disease (AD) often begins long before it is clinically recognized, with subtle brain changes emerging years before noticeable memory loss or cognitive decline.

27 May 2026

Estrogen decline alters brain cell matrix in older females

A largely overlooked space between cells in women's brains may hold the key to understanding memory loss tied to estrogen decline after menopause, reports a new preclinical Northwestern Medicine study.

26 May 2026

Brain scans find no evidence of widespread inflammation in long COVID

A new brain imaging study has found no evidence of widespread brain inflammation in patients suffering from prolonged symptoms after COVID-19 infection. Instead, the most severe long COVID symptoms were associated with increased brain activity in regions involved in mood and emotion.

22 May 2026

New study shows how exercise hormone reduces multiple sclerosis symptoms

A new study offers clues as to why exercise can improve neurological symptoms in people with multiple sclerosis (MS).

21 May 2026

Uneven grey matter loss serves as a powerful new biomarker for early neurodegeneration

Universitat Oberta de Catalunya Alzheimer's disease begins to weave a web in the brain and remodel neuronal tissue 15 to 20 years before the first symptoms appear. From the time this happens, however, until the disease is diagnosed and, later, enters an advanced phase, it progresses along a continuum of changes to the brain.

21 May 2026