Hippocampus Synthesis

Research has indicated that people who have experienced and extreme amount of stress or traumatic event sometimes have a smaller hippocampus region of the brain in adults with chronic PTSD and early childhood trauma. This is the part of the brain that is responsible for memory. The reduction in size may be caused by a combination of the environment and genetics (NARSAD.com). People who are diagnosed with this disorder are more likely to have trouble with relationships, smoke cigarettes, abuse drugs and or alcohol use. If PTSD is left untreated it can have devastating lasting effects.

During the book, Steven talks about his depression because of the traumatic experiences with his father. When Steven says, “At this point, my depression really kicked in” (pg. 45). This is because his hippocampus has shrunk. It has been researched, that people that have major depression, have a shrunken hippocampus. The longer Steven has been depressed, results in his hippocampus getting smaller and loses the ability to work correctly. In addition to the hippocampus, the amygdala has a role in depressive behavior as well. The amygdala forms part of the limbic system and is a set of neurons that are shown to play a major role in the processing of emotions. The amygdala is a part of the brain that has a direct correlation to depression and oversees evaluating the emotional significance of different kinds of stimuli. For example, the amygdala is overly active in people with depression when you show them sad stimuli, and is under-active when shown positive things like rewards. This part of the brain also organizes the emotional experience in expression. What this means is that it organizes endocrine response to stress and threats. The more depressed a person is, the more their amygdala must act. The DLPFC, stands for dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and is the latest part of the brain to form in humans and other mammals. This part of the brain also has a lot to do with major depressive disorder because

The cerebral cortex directs functions like speech, behavior, reactions, movement, thinking, and learning. In fact, some research suggests that bipolar disorder originates with problems with the thalamus, which links sensory input to good and bad feelings. The hippocampus also affects depression. It, like the amygdala, is part of the limbic system. It is vital in processing long-term memory. This section of the brain registers recurring fear. In people with clinical depression, the hippocampus is much smaller. Research suggests, even, that ongoing exposure to stress impairs the growth of nerve cells in this part of the brain. One of the most important jobs of the brain is to process senses, through neurons. Neurotransmitters are specific substances that help relay information to the brain. Scientists have identified many neurotransmitters that affect depression. A lack or excess of the neurotransmitters acetylcholine, serotonin, norepinephrine, dopamine, glutamate, lithium carbonate and gamma-aminobutyric acid are thought to contribute to depression. Acetylcholine is involved in learning and enhances memory. Serotonin helps regulate sleep, appetite, and mood, and inhibits pain. Research shows the idea that many depressed people have reduced levels of serotonin. Low levels of a byproduct of serotonin have been linked to a high risk for suicide. Norepinephrine is a neurotransmitter which constricts blood vessels and raises blood pressure. An excess in

“Alzheimer's disease is a progressive, degenerative disorder that attacks the brain's nerve cells, or neurons, resulting in loss of memory, thinking and language skills, and behavioral changes. These neurons, which produce the brain chemical, or neurotransmitter, acetylcholine, break connections with other nerve cells and ultimately die. For example, short-term memory fails when Alzheimer's disease first destroys nerve cells in the hippocampus” (Alzheimer’s Association Foundation.) The destruction of the hippocampus is very serious because the hippocampus is a structure in the brain’s limbic system that plays an important part role in memory (Ettinger 91.) Its is responsible for forming organizing and storing memories.It connects the memories to structures and senses like smell and sound. “The hippocampus is a horseshoe shaped paired structure, with one hippocampus located in the left brain hemisphere and the other in the right hemisphere. The hippocampus acts as a

The depression diseasing our society today is mostly caused by stress related activities. Because our society demands so much out of us we struggle to handle all the stress it throws out us. STanford researchers found people who had depression had smaller hippocampuses; the part of the brain that controls long term memory and emotions. The researchers also found that this smaller hippocampus was caused by a deterioration of it over time, not in one sudden moment. THe deterioration is caused by, you guessed it, stress. However, it’s a double edged sword, because as stress causes the deterioration, it also prevents the healing process by preventing neurons from growing around the

Since it is close structurally to the hippocampus, the amygdala is involved in controlling memory consolidation, especially emotional memories; when a memory is emotionally charged, it has a better retention rate than one that is not. The hippocampus is generally seen as having an essential role in the creation of new memories about past experiences; it's even responsible for memories that can be verbalized also known as declarative memory. Damage to it result in difficulties in forming new memories and being able to access new memories formed before the

The brain develops in such a way that it leaves itself vulnerable to these negative influences. The prenatal brain develops an overabundance of neurons, some of which are then carefully eliminated before age 4 (5). In a process similar to this, the amount of synapses between neurons is built up during early childhood and then pruned back for the next 30 years of life (5). These two processes are both disturbed by elevated levels of stress hormones (5). The two centers of the brain with the most postnatal changes, including the growth of new neurons after birth, are the hippocampus, which is part of the limbic system, and the cerebellar vermis (6). The hippocampus is in charge of creating and retrieving memories, working together with the other parts of the limbic system, such as the amygdala, which records the emotions for each memory. The vermis controls the production and release of two of the catecholamine neurotransmitters, dopamine and norepinephrine (6). Both the vermis and the limbic system have higher concentrations of receptors for the stress hormone cortisol than anywhere else in the brain (6). Due to this fact, these still-developing areas are the most vulnerable to the damage done by elevated levels of stress hormones.

The hippocampus is the part of the brain that records new memories and stores them in the brain for a later time. When a patient has PTSD, the volume of the hippocampus decreases. As a matter of fact, Wlassoff says a “considerable reduction in the volume of the hippocampus.” (Wlassoff) Wlassoff goes to give an example of what the reduction of volume in the hippocampus effects are on the person. “A war veteran still cannot watch violent movies because they remind him of his trench days; his hippocampus cannot minimize the interference of past memories.” (Wlassoff) In the article, it is explained that PTSD patients and their environment play a great deal on the hippocampus and triggering of stress. The patient cannot, as Wlassoff said, “discriminate between past and present experiences.” (Wlassoff)

Another interesting finding in research, is that of reduced hippocampal volume in depressed patients (Roy & Campbell, 2013).. There are various models accounting for this such as the neurotoxicity hypothesis which states that the reduction in volume occurs because of prolonged stress and hormone levels. The vulnerability hypothesis states that individuals with a familial risk of depression have a significantly smaller hippocampus than controls (Chan et al., 2016). The Chan et al. (2016) study examined individuals with depression and healthy controls. The participants with depression had reduced hippocampal volume when compared to the control group. The researchers posit reduced hippocampal volume as a possible neural marker of depression and the potential for this to be viewed as a vulnerability marker for future depressive episodes (Assareh et al., 2015). It can be theorized that Toni and her family may have reduced volume of the

Depression is an undetectable disorder. This condition can make a person feel worthless and their achievements in life futile. Additionally, depression affects an important organ in our brain the is in charge of our memory. The hippocampus regulates the production of cortisol, when high levels are present it can slow down the production on neurons. People that have this horrendous condition, can seek treatment in different ways such as: Psychotherapist and antidepressants. The physician can have several sessions with the patient in order to cure them from their condition and sometimes the physician can prescribe antidepressants. This type of medication is prescribe to help people improve their mood but it can take few weeks before the medication take an

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.

Damage done from trauma on the neurological functioning of the brain can be widespread, but can be found to interfere with functioning of the hippocampus and the limbic system to a greater extent. Randall (2011) explained that when a large amount of stress is continually placed on the brain from ongoing trauma, cortisol, a fight or flight response chemical, can fail to stop firing when the stressor that ignited the cortisol is no longer present. This excess of cortisol impairs the brains ability to function properly (Randall, 2011). Andersen, Tomada, Vincow, Valente, Polcari, Teicher (2008) found that women who had experienced sexual abuse during childhood actually had a difference in the volume of their hippocampus (as cited in Pechtel and Pizzagalli, 2011). The region which controls memory and emotional regulation was found to be smaller in the women who had been sexually abused in early childhood in comparison to

Hippocampus is a small, curved region, which exists in both hemispheres of the brain and plays a vital role in emotions, learning and acquisition of new information. It also contributes majorly to long term memory, which is permanent information stored in the brain. Although long term memory is the last information that can be forgotten, its impairment has become very common nowadays. The dysfunction is exemplified by many neurological disorders such as amnesia. There are two types of amnesia, anterograde and retrograde. Anterograde amnesia is inability in forming new information, while retrograde refers to the loss of the past memory. As suggested by Cipolotti and Bird (2006), hippocampus’s lesions are

involved in memory storage. The hippocampus is a place in the brain that is used to

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