Hippocampus: Long-Term Memory Study

Among these different processes are encoding, storage, consolidation, and retrieval. This study hypothesized that the hippocampus plays a different role in each of these. The method of this study is especially unique because it used temporary chemical inactivation of the hippocampus, which had not been done before. This temporary inactivation is unique because it lets the researchers selectively assess the role of the hippocampus during each of the processes discussed above. To test encoding, the inactivation occurred during learning of a maze task; to test retrieval, inactivation occurred during a retention task. Results indicate the temporary inactivation of the hippocampus impairs both encoding and retrieval. To test long-term consolidation, rats were trained and then separate groups received hippocampal treatment for different amounts of time between one and five days. Results showed that temporary inactivation during this time period disrupts memory for the already learned task. This study partially supports the result of the study by Eldridge et al. (2000) in that they both show the hippocampus is necessary for memory retrieval. However, it does not address the retrieval of different types of memory. This study also supports the idea from Wang et al. (2012) that the hippocampus may be involved in consolidation and storage of new memories but not necessarily of older

Scientists use words like “marvelous” to accurately describe the human brain, a 3 pound “motherboard” controlling emotions, breathing, movements, and records every minute of

There is extensive evidence to prove that the hippocampus plays a vital role in memory retrieval. However the extent to what type of memories the hippocampus supports and the process in which retrieval occurs is an ongoing debate. The two theories that are dominant in this debate are the Standard Model of Systems Consolidation (SMSC) and the Multiple Trace Theory (MTT). This paper will provide a review on the evidence supporting these two composing theories, the research providing evidence against the models, and finally their limitations. Additionally, a novel theory coined the Competitive Trace Theory (CTT) will be reviewed in order to conclude whether or not this model can provide a more holistic and accurate representation of the role of the hippocampus in memory retrieval while simultaneously providing explanations for flaws in previously proposed models.

The hippocampus, which is the Latin word for seahorse, is named because of the shape it holds (Hippocampus). It is the neural center in the limbic system (Myers, 368). This system is located in the temporal lobe, close to the center of the brain. The hippocampus is essentially involved with the storage of long-term memory, especially of past knowledge and experiences (Hippocampus). The hippocampus is also vitally important to the creation of new memories, and without it humans would always be living in the past.

The hippocampus plays an essential role in long term memory (Memory loss & the brain, 2010). An assumption that many people have is that memories are stored in the hippocampus, which is not true. A simpler way to imagine the hippocampus’s role in long term memory is to think of it as a door that information must go through to get permanently stored in the brain (Memory loss & the brain 2010). After a memory has passed through the hippocampus and is stored permanently it will stay there despite damage to the hippocampus (Bird, Burgess. 2008). The hippocampus’s role in spatial navigation has been and still is a controversy (Bird, Burgess. 2008). However, over the years research has been done to find that the hippocampus is essential in spatial navigation, but the controversy now is how? (Bird, Burgess. 2008). What is known

Steve Ramirez, Xu Liu, Pei-Ann Lin, Junghyup Suh, Michele Pignatelli, Roger L. Redondo, Tomás J. Ryan, Susumu Tonegawa

It has been found that the hippocampus might be an intermediary between the neo-cortex's representations and the filing away of information into long term memory. This would go along with the idea of various components of the nervous system communicating with each other to create inputs and outputs. In one study, rats were presented with food only if a tone and a light were presented together. Rats which had received a lesion to the hippocampus had a hard time learning the conditioned response to obtain the food. This finding might lead one to the idea that the lesion affected the animal's ability to remember or retrieve the information that would tell it to perform the response and get food. Animals when trained to a fearful stimulus in a specific context will become conditioned to the context, they will begin to fear the context in which the fearful stimulus is given. Animals with hippocampal lesions do not gain this context conditioning. Or rather, they do not gain a fear of the context of the situation where fearful shocks are given. (http://www.cogsci.soton.ac.uk/bbs/Archive/bbs.eichenbaum.html) This prompted some researchers to think that the hippocampus may have something to do with our ability to remember context, or context cues that surround us in the real world.

However, memory storing is when information comes into memory system and stored in specific brain cells. The hippocampus is the most magnificent element in memory. In fact, the hippocampus is located in the medial temporal lobe of the brain (Ananya, 2014). Also new memories are stored in hippocampus without hippocampus the brain cannot store or retrieved memories (According to the scientific of America, 2009). Furthermore, there are three ways in which memories can be store by visual, acoustic, and semantic. For instance, people memorize a phone number when they have looked up in phone book if so they using visual coding, but if they repeating it after looked up they probably using acoustic coding (Mclead, 2007). Memory is stored by a small

The cerebellum, the part of the brain that regulates and coordinates the movements of the body. It allows us to do things without thinking and helps with memory. While driving the cerebellum coordinates the left and right hand movement.

Early investigations of the role of the hippocampus in social memory involved lesions to the brain areas that project to and from the hippocampus. One of such areas is medial septum, which has strong reciprocal projections to and from hippocampal formation (McNaughton & Miller 1984; Alonso & Köhler 1984; Chandler & Crutcher 1983). It has been shown that vincristine-induced lesions to the medial septum impairs social memory (Terranova et al. 1994; Fournier et al. 1993). Similarly, transection of the fimbria, which carries multiple projections to and from the hippocampus (Wyss et al. 1980; Cassel et al. 1997) also impairs social recognition memory (Maaswinkel et al. 1996). (but see also Petrulis et al. 2000)

The hippocampus plays a role in memory, emotions and learning. So when you are playing cards with your friends and the game is new to you, you will have to use your hippocampus to learn the game and keep in your memory how to play it. If one of your friends were to have brought a new person over you would have to memorize the new persons name. If you're socializing and someone begins talking

Without the hippocampus, the information from the short-term memory (STM) cannot be stored in long term memory (LTM). The hippocampus is a very important part of the human brain to store our memories. If we lost it, we will lose all our conscious memories. From Henry’s case, it also discovered that there are multiple memory storage areas located at different parts of the brain while the hippocampus is important to consolidate short-term memory to long-term memory. The removal of hippocampus caused Henry to suffer until he died as he lost the ability to make new conscious

Doctors and scientists dispute the exact role of the hippocampus, but agree that it has an essential role in the formation of new memories about personally experienced events. Some researchers prefer to consider the hippocampus as part of a larger medial temporal lobe memory system responsible for declarative memory. When a long-term, declarative memory is made, certain neuronal connections in the temporal lobe are strengthened, and others are weakened. These changes are fairly permanent, however some may take weeks or months before they are complete

The brain has many parts with different functions that have an effect on the entire body.