00:00Welcome to 2-Minute Neuroscience, where I simplistically explain neuroscience topics in 2 minutes or less.
00:04In this installment, I will discuss the hippocampus.
00:08There is a hippocampus in the temporal lobe of each cerebral hemisphere.
00:11The name hippocampus comes to the Greek for seahorse, because when it is removed from the brain, it vaguely resembles
00:17a seahorse.
00:18Although it has many functions, the hippocampus is best known for its role in memory.
00:23The hippocampus is part of a larger structure in the temporal lobe called the hippocampal formation.
00:28Definitions of what structures are included in the hippocampal formation vary, but generally it is considered to at least include
00:33the hippocampus,
00:34the adjacent cortex which is called the hippocampal or parahippocampal gyrus,
00:39and a strip of gray matter in between the two called the dentate gyrus.
00:43The hippocampal gyrus contains areas called the entorhinal cortex and sabiculum,
00:47which are both involved in the flow of information through the hippocampus.
00:52In addition to being compared to a seahorse, the hippocampus has also been likened to the curved horn of a
00:57ram,
00:57or the horns of the ancient Egyptian god Aemon, and thus has been called Aemon's horn or cornoemonus.
01:03Accordingly, the hippocampus has been subdivided anatomically into four regions designated CA1 through CA4.
01:09The CA stands for cornoemonus.
01:12The hippocampus receives information from the rest of the cerebral cortex primarily via the perforant pathway,
01:18which originates in the entorhinal cortex and projects to the dentate gyrus.
01:22Fibers then leave the dentate gyrus and project to neurons in the CA3 region of the hippocampus.
01:28Neurons in CA3 then send axons to neurons in the CA1 region, which projects to neurons in the sabiculum.
01:35The sabiculum can be considered the main output region of the hippocampal formation.
01:39Fibers from the sabiculum project back upon neurons in the entorhinal cortex,
01:42and then fibers from the entorhinal cortex travel out to a variety of areas in the cerebrum.
01:48Output fibers also leave the sabiculum and hippocampus and enter the fornix,
01:51a fiber bundle that connects the hippocampus with a variety of subcortical areas like the thalamus and hypothalamus.
01:57Output fibers