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Hippocampus and its interactions within the medial temporal lobe
Author(s) -
Jeffery Kathryn J.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
hippocampus
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.767
H-Index - 155
eISSN - 1098-1063
pISSN - 1050-9631
DOI - 10.1002/hipo.20334
Subject(s) - citation , psychology , cognitive science , neuroscience , library science , computer science
The hippocampus has been a focus of intensive study ever since Scoville and Milner’s seminal report of the amnesic patient HM (Scoville and Milner, 1957), with interest divided between its clear role in memory, and its equally clear role in spatial processing. By contrast, the brain areas around the hippocampus remained relatively unexplored for many years, often being regarded merely as a source of experimental confounds in lesion studies of hippocampus. It gradually came to be appreciated, however, that many of the deficits attributed to hippocampal lesions might have been explained by reference to surrounding structures that were also damaged (Meunier et al., 1996). More recently, the additional information afforded by fMRI studies (mainly in humans) and single neuron studies (mainly in rats and monkeys) has demonstrated that the brain regions neighboring the hippocampus and connecting with it seem to have quite sophisticated and specialized functions of their own, and as such, the role of the hippocampus cannot be understood without reference to these functions. Interest in how the hippocampus interacts with these other areas is steadily growing, and in 2006 a workshop was held at UCL to explore the state of play with regard to this question. This special issue of Hippocampus presents papers arising from this workshop, together with additional invited contributions. For convenience, we have collectively called these areas ‘‘medial temporal lobe’’ (MTL), while acknowledging that the structures that are medial and temporal in humans are not always so in other species. Areas explored include entorhinal, perirhinal, and parahippocampal cortices, and also amygdala. In addition, there are some theoretical discussions of the properties expected of hippocampal cortical afferents in light of the observed properties of hippocampal neurons. Together, these articles paint a picture of a highly specialized network of intercommunicating regions that shape hippocampal processing and are, in turn, often shaped by it. The medial temporal lobe is clearly a fascinating and complex area, and we are only just beginning to understand it.