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.

Brain memory modifies wiring during the female menstrual cycle

Researchers at Northwestern University and Columbia University have found that "wiring" in female rat brain memory area expands and retracts in relation to the amount of estrogen present during the estrous/menstrual cycle.

5 Dec 2005

Disruption of normal gene interaction linked to schizophrenia

Disruption of the normal interaction between the genes PRODH and COMT contributes directly to major symptoms of schizophrenia by upsetting the balance of the brain chemicals glutamate and dopamine, according to a group of investigators that includes a scientist now at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

2 Dec 2005

Exercise in moderation best for the brain

Exercise is good for your physical health. We have known this for a long time. We also know that physical activity is good for the brain and alleviates depression and stress.

28 Nov 2005

Link between diet and epileptic seizures studied

Although the high-fat, calorie-restricted ketogenic diet (KD) has long been used to prevent childhood epileptic seizures that are unresponsive to drugs, physicians have not really understood exactly why the diet works.

13 Nov 2005

Neuron finding could advance understanding of epilepsy and age-related memory loss

Neurons experience large-scale changes across their dendrites during learning, say neuroscientists at The University of Texas at Austin in a new study that highlights the important role that these cell regions may play in the processes of learning and memory.

3 Nov 2005

Search for genes responsible for anxiety disorders

Increasing the activity of two enzymes better known for their role in oxidative stress metabolism turns normally relaxed mice into "Nervous Nellies," according to research conducted at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and reported in the early online edition of Nature.

30 Oct 2005

New understanding of how neurogenesis occurs

Scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have identified a crucial cellular signal that controls the fate of stem cells in the brains of adult mice.

27 Oct 2005

Aβ and Fyn cooperate to cause Alzheimer-like changes in the brain

Reporting in two companion papers in the October 19 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience, investigators from the Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease show in genetically engineered mouse models of the disease that the accumulation of Alzheimer-related neurotoxic amyloid-beta (Aâ) peptides can deplete key proteins in a specific memory center of the brain.

18 Oct 2005

Cannabis boosts brain power in rats

Scientists now say that Cannabis, the third most popular recreational drug after alcohol and tobacco, could boost brain power.

17 Oct 2005

Cannabis boosts brain power in rats

Scientists now say that Cannabis, the third most popular recreational drug after alcohol and tobacco, could boost brain power.

16 Oct 2005

Psychological stress during infancy has been found to cause early impaired memory

The study suggests that the emotional stress associated with parental loss, abuse or neglect may contribute to the type of memory loss during middle-age years that is normally seen in the elderly.

11 Oct 2005

Earliest signs of Alzheimer's can be screened for with an electroencephalograph

Although Alzheimer's disease affects millions of people worldwide, there is no way to identify this devastating brain disease at its earliest stages when there still may be time to delay or even prevent the downward spiral into dementia.

5 Oct 2005

Exposure to toxin domoic acid might negatively affect unborn children

Duke University Medical Center researchers have found that the naturally occurring marine toxin domoic acid can cause subtle but lasting cognitive damage in rats exposed to the chemical before birth. Humans can become poisoned by the potentially lethal, algal toxin after eating contaminated shellfish.

6 Sep 2005

First genetic evidence that protein synthesis is critical for the regulation of memory formation

A group of Montreal researchers has discovered that GCN2, a protein in cells that inhibits the conversion of new information into long-term memory, may be a master regulator of the switch from short-term to long-term memory.

29 Aug 2005

Biochemical switch that affects how neurons fire in a part of the brain associated with learning

Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have identified a biochemical switch that affects how neurons fire in a part of the brain associated with learning, findings that may aid in understanding schizophrenia and Alzheimer's disease.

17 Aug 2005

Adult stem cells may play a role in the development of some forms of cancer

Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have determined that stem cells in a certain region of the brain may be the source of a particular type of incurable brain tumor and may be implicated in other types of brain cancers as well.

16 Aug 2005

Key toxin could provide for world's first treatment for Alzheimer's

Dr Karen Cullen at Sydney University’s Institute for Biomedical Research is part of a collaborative team which has identified a key component in the progression of Alzheimer’s disease, a finding which may produce the world’s first effective treatment to combat the debilitating effects of the disease.

15 Aug 2005

Australian researchers have found a toxin that plays an important role in the progression of Alzheimer's disease

The research, which is led by two University of New South Wales academics, is significant because drugs that are in the advanced developmental phase for other conditions might be able to be used on Alzheimer's patients, to halt the disease progressing.

4 Aug 2005

Researchers pinpoint specific cause of defects in motor learning in Fragile X patients

While researchers have long known the genetic defect underlying Fragile X syndrome, they are still tracing how that defect creates the complex mix of mental retardation, hyperactive behavior, attention deficits, and other problems in the disorder.

3 Aug 2005

Habit memory - humans clearly can acquire and retain knowledge through repetition

Humans have a "robust" capacity to learn and retain new information unconsciously, retaining so-called habit memory even when conscious or declarative learning is absent, memory experts at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and the San Diego Veterans Affairs Health System report in the July 28, 2005 issue of Nature.

27 Jul 2005