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 insights into hormone therapy show when estrogen best aids brain

New hormone therapy studies demonstrate estrogen's ability to directly stimulate neurons, repair damaged neurons, and stimulate support cells—most of which can alleviate some of the cognitive decline associated with menopause.

28 Oct 2004

New direction for spinal cord research

A piece of the puzzle of how nerves find their way across the midline of the brain and spinal cord in a developing embryo has been found by Medical College of Georgia researchers.

28 Oct 2004

Men undergoing prostate cancer therapy forget things faster

Oregon Health & Science University researchers studying how testosterone deprivation affects verbal memory found that men undergoing the prostate cancer therapy forget things faster than their healthy counterparts.

25 Oct 2004

Single protein appears central to the formation of the long-term memories

Researchers at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development have discovered that a single protein appears central to the formation of the long-term memories.

16 Oct 2004

Lithium can protect the brain cells involved in learning and memory from radiation damage

Patients who undergo radiation for treatment of brain tumors may survive their cancer only to have lasting memory and learning deficiencies, the impact of which can be particularly devastating for children.

10 Oct 2004

Researchers identifiy brain circuit that appears crucial in converting short-term memories into long-term memories

The circuit links the major learning-related area of the brain to another region that governs the brain's higher functions.

6 Oct 2004

Researchers have identified the mechanism by which marijuana may affect learning and memory

Marijuana use has long been known to cause problems with learning and memory. Now, researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have identified the mechanism by which marijuana may affect activity in the hippocampus

29 Sep 2004

Mouse study suggests that survivors of severe heart attacks may have problems learning certain tasks

A new study in mice suggests that survivors of severe heart attacks may have a difficult time with some learning tasks.

29 Sep 2004

Findings have implications for understanding psychiatric and neurological disease that affect the hippocampus

Spatial memory is more vulnerable than object recognition memory when damage occurs in the brain’s memory processing center, the hippocampus, according to memory specialists at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine

27 Sep 2004

Findings point to the hippocampus as critical to the process of recollection

For millennia, the process of memory and remembering has intrigued scholars and scientists. In 350 B.C., Aristotle, in his seminal treatise on the subject, described it as having two forms: familiarity and recollection. Of these, he considered recollection to be a purely human condition.

8 Sep 2004

Neural basis of memory loss

Most forms of memory loss are caused by some type of brain injury - particularly to the hippocampus. Amnesia can arise from brain damage that interferes with memory storage, retrieval, or consolidation. What ultimately causes amnesia - a failure to store memories or a failure to retrieve them - is not clear.

16 Aug 2004

Study evaluated the ability of vitamin E and Aricept, to delay the progression of mild cognitive impairment to Alzheimer's disease

Researchers in the neurology department in the University of Arizona College of Medicine in Tucson participated in a study that evaluated the ability of vitamin E and donepezil hydrochloride, marketed as Aricept, to delay the progression of mild cognitive impairment to Alzheimer's disease.

2 Aug 2004

Drug slows the progression of mild cognitive impairment

For the first time, a drug appears to have a slowing effect - though limited - on the progression from mild cognitive impairment, a memory disorder considered a strong early predictor of Alzheimer’s disease, to Alzheimer’s.

19 Jul 2004

Having a good time can strengthen different centres in the brain and help it grow healthy brain cells

Dr Ian Reid, professor of mental health at the University of Aberdeen, told delegates that for many years psychiatrists believed that poor mental health was just caused by imbalances in various brain chemicals.

10 Jul 2004

Research to unravel exactly what is going on chemically, when Alzheimer's sets in

Science understands Alzheimer's disease as the progressive decline of a particular region of the brain. But the underlying mechanisms leading to this decline are still very much a mystery.

7 Jul 2004

Sex hormones alter the development of certain brain structures during puberty

The results, in press with NeuroImage, show that sex hormones alter the development of certain brain structures during puberty and that these effects persist into adulthood.

29 Jun 2004

New insights into a mysterious type of amnesia

Researchers have new insights into a mysterious type of amnesia, according to a study published in the June 22 issue of Neurology

21 Jun 2004

Size and shape of synapses among neurons in the cerebral cortex determine long term memory capability

In a study to appear in the June 10 issue of Neuron, neuroscientists at the Picower Center for Learning and Memory at MIT show for the first time that storage of long-term memories depends on the size and shape of synapses among neurons in the outer part of the brain, the cerebral cortex.

14 Jun 2004

Howard Hughes researchers find Alzheimer's may leave some forms of memory intact

Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) researchers have made the surprising discovery that people with Alzheimer's disease retain the capability for a specific form of memory used for rote learning of skills, even as their memories of people and events are extinguished.

10 Jun 2004

How the brain interprets electrical impulses sent by neurons

University of California, San Diego neurobiologists have uncovered evidence that sheds light on the long-standing mystery of how the brain makes sense of the information contained in electrical impulses sent to it by millions of neurons from the body.

3 Jun 2004