Hippocampus Flashcards
Is the hippocampus part of the telencephalon? Does is receive olfactory input?
- the hippocampus is part of the telencephalon
- it receives olfactory input, but lesions to the hippocampus do not disrupt olfactory discrimination
Describe how the hippocampus’s role in memory formation was discovered?
-established in 1957 when Scoville and Milner described cases where anterograde amnesia followed bilateral temporal lobectomies in humans
Kluver-Bucy syndrome
- results from bilateral lesions of medial temporal lobe
- The list of symptoms differs somewhat by source. Generally included are the following:
Amnesia. Characterised by an inability to recall memories. Its nature is both anterograde and retrograde, meaning new memories cannot be formed and old memories cannot be recalled. The level of amnesia is considered to be profound.
Docility. Characterized by exhibiting diminished fear responses or reacting with unusually low aggression. This has also been termed “placidity” or “tameness”.[2][3][4]
Dietary changes and/or Hyperphagia. Characterized by eating inappropriate objects (pica) and/or overeating.[2][3][4]
Hyperorality. This was described by Ozawa et al. as “an oral tendency, or compulsion to examine objects by mouth”.[2][3][4]
Hypersexuality. Characterized by a heightened sex drive or a tendency to seek sexual stimulation from unusual or inappropriate objects.[2][3][4]
Visual agnosia. Characterized by an inability to recognize familiar objects or people.
Patient HM could/did
- remember childhood events
- remember events up to 1-2 years before the surgery
- perform normally on IQ tests
- have normal exteroceptive perception
- learn new motor skills
HM could NOT
- remember having surgery
- recognize his doctors
- understand how he became old
- remember his parents’ death after surgery
- have normal interoceptive perception
- have normal emotional experience
HM showed that the hippocampus probably does NOT:
- store long term memories
- required for memory recall
- required for procedural memory
HM showed that the hippocampus probably IS required for:
- forming new explicit memories
- probably important for memory consolidation
short term memory
-newly acquired information that decays over a brief period of time unless it is reinforced
long term memory
-is retention of acquired information for extended periods of time
The hippocampus proper contains
- CA1
- CA2
- CA3
- CA4
The hippocampal formation contains
- hippocampus proper
- dentate gyrus and subiculum
The hippocampal region contains
- hippocampal formation
- entorhinal cortex
hippocampal sulcus separates the
-dentate from the subiculum
the hippocampus is separated from the rest of the temporal lobe by the
-inferior horn of the lateral ventricle
alveus
-white matter tract containing afferent axons and efferent projections that will enter the fimbria en route to the fornix