Hippocampus Hippocampus The hippocampus (named after its resemblance to the seahorse, from the Greek ἱππόκαμπος, "seahorse" from ἵππος "hippos", "horse" and κάμπος "kampos", "sea monster") is a major component of the brains of humans and other vertebrates. Humans and other mammals have two hippocampi, one in each side of the brain. The hippocampus belongs to the limbic system and plays important roles in the consolidation of information from short-term memory to long-term memory, and in spatial memory that enables navigation. The hippocampus is located under the cerebral cortex (allocortical) and in primates in the medial temporal lobe. It contains two main
Long-term potentiation structures, including the cerebral cortex, cerebellum, amygdala, and many others. Robert Malenka, a prominent LTP researcher, has suggested that LTP may even occur at all excitatory synapses in the mammalian brain. Different areas of the brain exhibit different forms of LTP. The specific type of LTP exhibited between neurons depends on a number of factors. One such factor is the age of the organism when LTP is observed. For example, the molecular mechanisms of LTP in the immature hippocampus differ from those mechanisms that underlie LTP of the adult hippocampus. The signalling pathways used by a particular cell also contribute