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.

New method could help treat severe epilepsy in the future

Researchers at Lund University in Sweden believe they have found a method that in the future could help people suffering from epilepsy so severe that all current treatment is ineffective.

16 Apr 2018

The memory area of the brain may also yield vital clues about mental health illnesses

The hippocampus is an area of the brain commonly linked with memory and dementia. But new U of T Scarborough research finds that it may also yield important clues about a range of mental health illnesses including addiction, anxiety and depression.

16 Apr 2018

Sleep deprivation increases brain protein linked to Alzheimer's disease

Losing just one night of sleep led to an immediate increase in beta-amyloid, a protein in the brain associated with Alzheimer's disease, according to a small, new study by researchers at the National Institutes of Health. In Alzheimer's disease, beta-amyloid proteins clump together to form amyloid plaques, a hallmark of the disease.

13 Apr 2018

Researchers develop thin, flexible polymers to record activity more deeply in the brain

Science has yet to unravel a complete understanding of the brain and all its intricate workings. It's not for lack of effort.

11 Apr 2018

Discordance between brain regions could lead to attention deficit disorders

Researchers from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and colleagues have discovered how two brain regions work together to maintain attention, and how discordance between the regions could lead to attention deficit disorders, including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and major depression.

6 Apr 2018

New brain cells are added in elderly adult brains too

Scientists have long debated the fact that brains change with age and no new brain cells or neurons are added once an adult is fully grown. With age the number of neurons begins to decline leading to several problems with memory and cognition.

6 Apr 2018

Largest-ever study to examine anatomical alterations in the brains of epilepsy patients

An international research consortium used neuroimaging techniques to analyze the brains of more than 3,800 volunteers in different countries. The largest study of its kind ever conducted set out to investigate anatomical similarities and differences in the brains of individuals with different types of epilepsy and to seek markers that could help with prognosis and treatment.

4 Apr 2018

Scientists demonstrate successful implementation of prosthetic memory system

Scientists at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center and the University of Southern California (USC) have demonstrated the successful implementation of a prosthetic system that uses a person's own memory patterns to facilitate the brain's ability to encode and recall memory.

28 Mar 2018

Scientists discover link between diminished dopamine-firing cells and ability to form new memories

A new link between diminished input from dopamine-firing cells deep inside the brain and the ability to form new memories could be crucial in detecting the earliest signs of Alzheimer's disease.

28 Mar 2018

Researchers propose new approach to look deeper into brain function

To uncover connections between brain regions and specific cognitive functions, neuroscientists have long made extensive use of techniques like functional resonance imaging (fMRI). First introduced in the 1990's, the method allows tracking the brain's activity while a test subject performs a task or responds to stimuli in the MRI scanner.

26 Mar 2018

Mutations found in bassoon gene may help explain cause of rare brain disorder

Newly discovered gene mutations may help explain the cause of a disease that drastically impairs walking and thinking.

23 Mar 2018

Penn State psychologists shed light on false memories in older adults

Older adults often complain about forgetting, but Penn State psychologists suggest that another problem may be misremembering.

22 Mar 2018

Study suggests detailed neuropsychological assessment for brief cardiac arrest survivors

Patients who survive a brief cardiac arrest and who appear neurologically intact should nonetheless receive a detailed neuropsychological assessment before being discharged, suggests a joint study by researchers at Baycrest's Rotman Research Institute and Israel's Rambam Medical Center.

22 Mar 2018

Brain SPECT scans predict treatment outcomes in patients with depression

New research from the Amen Clinics shows that brain SPECT imaging, a study that measures blood flow and activity patterns, identifies who is likely to get better from depression and who is not.

20 Mar 2018

Salk researchers find that the brain's capacity for storing new memories is dynamic

Those of us who can't resist tourist tchotchkes are big fans of suitcases with an expandable compartment. Now, it turns out the brain's capacity for storing new memories is expandable, too, with limitations.

15 Mar 2018

UH researchers improve understanding of autism spectrum disorders

Two University of Houston scientists are reporting that defects in a portion of the brain's hippocampus, called the dentate gyrus, is regulated by the nuclear receptor LXRβ (Liver X receptor Beta). The dentate gyrus, or DG, is responsible for emotion and memory and is known to be involved in autism spectrum disorders (ASD).

15 Mar 2018

High-resolution fMRI provides clues about age-related memory differences

As we get older, it's not uncommon to experience "senior moments," in which we forget where we parked our car or call our children by the wrong names. And we may wonder: Are these memory lapses a normal part of aging, or do they signal the early stages of a severe disorder such as Alzheimer's disease? Currently, there's no good way to tell.

8 Mar 2018

Neurogenesis diminishes after childhood, finds study

In a recent study, scientists concluded that adult neurogenesis, which is seen in other species, does not occur in human beings.

8 Mar 2018

People with MDD feel more negative emotion when remembering painful experiences

People with major depressive disorder (MDD) feel more negative emotion when remembering painful experiences than people without the disorder, according to a new study in Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging. The study reports that people with MDD were able to control the negative emotions about as well as people unaffected by MDD, but used somewhat different brain circuits to do so.

6 Mar 2018

Treatments targeted to enhance brain neurotrophic factor signaling may improve memory functions

Treatments targeted to enhance brain neurotrophic factor signaling could improve memory functions in Alzheimer's disease even though they don't alter brain amyloid burden, according to recent research from the University of Eastern Finland.

6 Mar 2018