Memory

Stunning stain of a single neuron (blue) within the hippocampus ⚡️ . The hippocampus is THE area in the #brain responsible for memory 🌳 H.M., a famous patient in whom the hippocampus was surgically removed in the 1950s as a last-resort treatment for epilepsy, had a then-unpredicted side effect of anterograde amnesia (aka the inability to form new memories) for the rest of his life 😱. As unfortunate as his case was, it was H.M. who taught us the importance of the hippocampus in memory encoding and retrieval. . While we traditionally think of the brain as an area where cells don't divide or regenerate, we now understand the hippocampus to be a unique site where new neurons (aka brain cells) are formed even in adulthood. And the hippocampus operates under a use-it-or-lose-it principle. Keeping our brains active 💪, whether through work, reading, crossword puzzles, playing musical instruments, is correlated with increased hippocampal volume, and similarly (and perhaps unsurprisingly) a lower risk of dementia later in life. . Active brain, new neurons, and brain health for days (and by days I mean many many years 😊☀️) Image: Journal of Neuroscience, 2016