Latest

hippocampus

·July 23, 2025·6 min read

Your Brain Maps the Same Path Differently Every Time

New research shows that our brain’s internal map rewrites itself every time we navigate a familiar environment. Even when mice experienced identical virtual mazes with controlled sensory input, their hippocampal neurons activated in different patterns on each run.

Featured Neuroscience

·July 20, 2025·6 min read

The Brain’s Ripple Effect: How Memories Are Structured

Researchers have identified ripple-type brain waves as key to how humans segment and store memories. By recording brain activity in epilepsy patients watching a TV episode, they found ripples marked event boundaries in the hippocampus while supporting information processing in cortical areas.

Featured Neuroscience

·July 15, 2025·3 min read

Hippocampus and Insula Team Up to Encode Emotional Memories

A new study explored how the hippocampus and insula interact during the encoding of emotional memories in humans. Sixteen participants with implanted electrodes viewed emotionally valenced words and attempted to recall them while neural activity was recorded.

Featured Genetics Neuroscience

·July 5, 2025·4 min read

Human Brains Keep Making Memory Neurons in Adulthood

A groundbreaking study shows that the human hippocampus continues producing new neurons well into late adulthood. Researchers identified neural progenitor cells—the precursors to neurons—in adults up to 78 years old, confirming ongoing neurogenesis in the memory center of the brain.

Featured Neuroscience

·June 16, 2025·7 min read

Brain Cells Tune to Multiple Rhythms Like a Neural Radio

New research reveals that individual neurons in the hippocampus can respond to both slow and fast brain waves at the same time by switching between different firing modes. This process, called interleaved resonance, allows brain cells to encode complex information by using bursts for slower theta waves and single spikes for faster gamma waves.

Featured Neuroscience

·May 21, 2025·6 min read

How the Brain Stores and Edits Memories

A new scientific review maps the cellular and molecular mechanisms behind memory formation, consolidation, generalization, and updating—revealing how memories are stored, altered, and even manipulated in the brain. Key breakthroughs now allow scientists to visualize and activate specific neurons involved in memory, offering deeper insight into how learning occurs and how fear memories may become overgeneralized in disorders like PTSD.

Featured Neuroscience

·May 11, 2025·5 min read

Teen Obesity Linked to Brain Changes in Memory and Emotion Centers

A major new study shows that adolescents with abdominal obesity have significantly larger brain regions involved in memory and emotional regulation, raising concerns about how obesity affects brain development. MRI scans revealed that the hippocampus and amygdala were enlarged in teens with obesity, especially those with high waist-to-height ratios.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·May 7, 2025·5 min read

Dopamine’s Hidden Role in Anxiety Revealed

Dopamine receptors in the ventral hippocampus play a critical role in balancing approach and avoidance behaviors, expanding understanding beyond dopamine’s known functions in reward and motivation. By studying D1 and D2 receptor-expressing neurons in mice, researchers found these receptors govern opposing emotional responses under stress.

Featured Neurology Neuroscience

·April 8, 2025·4 min read

Blood Flow Boosts Brain Stiffness in Key Memory Region

Researchers have discovered that increased blood flow is linked to greater stiffness in the hippocampus, the brain region vital for memory and learning. This is significant because the hippocampus is among the first regions affected by Alzheimer’s disease.

Featured Neuroscience

·March 20, 2025·7 min read

Brain’s Memory Maps Constantly Evolve to Capture Changing Experiences

A new study reveals that memory-related brain activity continues to shift even after learning, challenging traditional views of stable neural representations. Researchers analyzed hippocampal neurons in mice and found that their "place cells," which encode spatial memory, subtly changed each time the mice revisited a familiar environment.

Featured Genetics Neuroscience

·February 8, 2025·7 min read

Mitochondria’s Role in Social Memory May Offer Clues to Brain Disorder

Researchers have identified a unique mitochondrial process in CA2 neurons that supports learning, memory, and social recognition. Mitochondria in different parts of these neurons vary in structure and function, with those at the outermost synapses relying on the mitochondrial calcium uniporter (MCU) for plasticity. Deleting the MCU gene disrupted this plasticity, highlighting its crucial role in maintaining neural connectivity.

Featured Neuroscience

·December 11, 2024·8 min read

Distinctive Neural Wiring Enhances Memory Storage

A new study has revealed distinct features of the human hippocampus, a brain region critical for memory storage and retrieval, challenging the assumption that it functions like a scaled-up mouse brain. By analyzing living brain tissue from epilepsy patients, researchers found that human hippocampal CA3 neurons exhibit sparse yet highly reliable connections, optimizing memory storage and retrieval. Unlike rodent brains, these unique wiring patterns enable the human brain to encode associative memories with greater efficiency.