The hippocampus plays one of the most significant roles as it’s responsible for memory, learning, special reasoning as well as long-term information storage. Seems important to know considering our job is to help students learn. The amygdala is what processes emotions and attaches emotional meaning to memory.

Treating Hippocampus Brain Injury (Helping the Brain Repair Itself)

1. Exercise. Exercise, particularly aerobic exercise, is one of the best ways to boost BDNF levels and improve hippocampal function.
2. Stimulate Your Brain. Keeping your brain stimulated can also increase hippocampus function.
3. Change Your Diet.

The hippocampus is thought to be principally involved in storing long-term memories and in making those memories resistant to forgetting, though this is a matter of debate. It is also thought to play an important role in spatial processing and navigation.

Hippocampus is a brain structure embedded deep in the temporal lobe of each cerebral cortex. It is an important part of the limbic system, a cortical region that regulates motivation, emotion, learning, and memory.

At age 27, H.M., whose real name was Henry Molaison, underwent an experimental surgical treatment for his debilitating epilepsy. His surgeon removed the medial temporal lobe, including a structure called the hippocampus. Thereafter, H.M. was unable to form new memories.

Temporal lobectomy is a 4 hour surgical procedure targeting removal of the anterior 3-4 cm of the temporal lobe. This area of the brain lies just behind the eye and above the ear. The most common reason for temporal lobectomy is to remove a very specific area called the hippocampus.

The hippocampus is found in the temporal lobe below the cerebral cortex. Although we often refer to it in the singular, there are actually two hippocampi—one in each cerebral hemisphere.

In her initial studies with Henry, published in 1957, Milner established that the hippocampus or adjacent structures were crucial for the long-term storage of information in memory.

If the hippocampus is damaged by disease or injury, it can influence a person’s memories as well as their ability to form new memories. Hippocampus damage can particularly affect spatial memory, or the ability to remember directions, locations, and orientations.

A small hippocampus may have altered neuronal morphology, which is dynamic and reversible, as emphasized by responding to treatments and interventions that include antidepressant therapy, diet, and cognitive challenges.

Retrograde amnesia can result from damage to different parts of the brain responsible for controlling emotions and memories. These include the thalamus, which is deep in the center of the brain, and the hippocampus, which is in the temporal lobe.

In temporally graded retrograde amnesia, victims eventually recover most memories following the onset of RA. This suggests that the hippocampal formation/ consolidation, the process of coding new information, is only used in systematic consolidation for temporary storage, and short periods of time.

With respect to what kind of memory impairment occurs, RA sometimes has been described as affecting both fact (semantic) memory and autobiographical (episodic) memory similarly (Verfaellie et al., 1995; Rempel-Clower et al., 1996).