New insight on the hippocampus, which creates memories, could help patients dealing with neurological diseases.
The hippocampus is part of the brain that is most known for its role in forming and retaining personal memories. But beyond allowing people to remember what they did yesterday, the hippocampus also helps people navigate their environments by helping them form a map-like representation of their surroundings.
Neuroscientist Shayna Rosenbaum, professor of psychology at York University and researcher at Vision: Science to Applications (VISTA), wants to know how to help patients with hippocampal damage recover as much memory-forming and navigation function as possible. It starts with understanding the complex relationships between functions of the hippocampus to help predict what happens when it becomes damaged.
