The hippocampus is a major component of the brains of humans and other
mammals. It belongs to the limbic system and plays important roles in
long term memory and spatial navigation. Like the cerebral cortex, with
which it is closely associated, it is a paired structure, with
mirror-image halves in the left and right sides of the brain. In humans
and other primates, the hippocampus is located inside the medial
temporal lobe, beneath the cortical surface. In rodents, the
hippocampus has been studied extensively as part of the brain system
responsible for spatial memory and navigation. Many neurons in the rat
and mouse hippocampus respond as place cells: that is, they fire bursts
of action potentials when the animal passes through a specific part of
its environment. Because of its densely packed layers of neurons, the
hippocampus has frequently been used as a model system for studying
neurophysiology. The form of neural plasticity known as long term
potentiation (LTP) was first discovered to occur in the hippocampus and
has often been studied in this structure. LTP is widely believed to be
one of the main neural mechanisms by which memory is stored in the
brain.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippocampus>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1809:
Peninsular War: French forces under Joseph Bonaparte suffered 7,270
casualties while Sir Arthur Wellesley's Anglo-Spanish army had 6,700 at
an inconclusive battle in Talavera, Spain.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Talavera>
1942:
World War II: Intending to increase Soviet morale and patriotism,
Joseph Stalin issued Order No. 227, ordering troops "Not a step back!"
(not to retreat) without an order or be subject to a military tribunal.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_No._227>
1976:
An earthquake measuring at least 8.2 on the Richter magnitude scale,
one of the deadliest in history, flattened Tangshan, China, killing at
least 240,000 people.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1976_Tangshan_earthquake>
1990:
Alberto Fujimori took office as President of Peru, becoming the first
person of Japanese descent to be the head of government of a Latin
American nation.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Fujimori>
2005:
The Provisional Irish Republican Army announced an end to its armed
campaign to overthrow British rule in Northern Ireland to create a
United Ireland.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provisional_Irish_Republican_Army>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
nostrify (v):
1. To nostrificate; to grant recognition to a degree from a foreign
university.
2. To adopt, accept, or include as part of one's own culture
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/nostrify>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
If I could only give three words of advice, they would be, "Tell the
Truth." If I got three more words, I'd add, "All the time."
--Randy Pausch
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Randy_Pausch>
Show replies by date