Hippocampus is a “high level” stream processor, it integrates into “maps” (and decomposes from “maps” to more discrete levels) our sensory stream. These maps are referenced to other functional nuclei throughout the nervous system.
The “Dorsal” portion of the hippocampus is responsible for “external” stimuli processing, the “Ventral” portion of the hippocampus is responsible for “internal” stimuli processing.
Some “stack order” issues are etiologically rooted in the hippocampus (e.g. “personality disorders”, “delusion”, some “hallucination”.
New hues for CA2 – CA2 region may actually take up most of the area traditionally designated the CA3a region, changing “flow of information” understandings.
Hippocampal area CA2 controls seizure dynamics, interictal EEG abnormalities and social comorbidity in mouse models of temporal lobe epilepsy – Another “autism” overlap, it’s interesting in that it may give us a more targeted way to control epileptic presentation, and possibly reduce the need for surgery for many.
Behavioral status modulates CA2 influence on hippocampal network dynamics – My most recent concept of the CA2 (not Ca2+) region is that it acts as a state/prediction map. This adds some interesting context.
The hippocampus associated GABAergic neural network impairment in early-stage of Alzheimer’s disease – It’s interesting to think of “cognitive dysfunction” as “noisy brain”.
Two different brain networks underlying picture naming with familiar pre-existing native words and new vocabulary – Eh, bit of a stretch to include this here, especially since I’m not a huge fan of the work itself, but it’s fun to see the fingerprints of the dorsal/ventral streams in even things like language.
Wow, there’s a lot of really bad crap being pumped out targeting the hippocampus. It’s actually overwhelming me a bit how overly specifically crafted most of this work is, stuff like this is damn near impossible to get useful inferences from.
Entorhinal-hippocampal interactions lead to globally coherent representations of space – AKA… maps.
Direct brain recordings suggest a causal subsequent-memory effect – Is this suggesting concurrent reads aren’t possible from the same local group?
Distinct effect of exercise modes on mood-related behavior in mice – Again, kind of tangential since it’s just sampling from the hippocampus rather than distinctly about hippocampal function, but… interesting. First, they quantified behavior by changes in RNA expression. My mood. Second, I’ve argued in the past for a differential effect of anaerobic vs. aerobic exercise (and while not supported by this, asserted that only anaerobic exercise has a significant effect on cognitive performance). Well, depending on how one feels about neurotrophin signalling (particularly GDNF signalling) probably describes the level of support for the second half of that assertion. If I wasn’t already overly freaked out about confirmation biases lately, I’d definitely add these guys to my filters for quantifying behavior like this.
Bidirectional regulation by “star forces”: Ionotropic astrocyte’s optical stimulation suppresses synaptic plasticity, metabotropic one strikes back – Another vaguely hippocampal piece of work, but one which demonstrates the bidirectional feedback mechanism so critical to hippocampal function.