hippocampus tagged posts

Dopamine innervation into the hippocampus. Green denotes general catecholamine — a general name for dopamine — innervation of the CA1 region of the hippocampus. Yellows denotes dopamine nerve endings in the same region. Scale bar is 50 microns. Credit: John Dani, Ph.D., Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania

Dopamine regulates how mice learn to avoid a disagreeable encounter, according to new research from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. “We know that dopamine reinforces ‘rewarding’ behaviors, but to our surprise, we have now shown that situations that animals learn to avoid are also regulated by dopamine,” said John Dani, PhD, chair of the department of Neuroscience.

Special neurons in the brain send out a burst of dopamine in both negat...

UCI professor of neurobiology & behavior Craig Stark, here holding a 3-D-printed model of his own hippocampus, says that “video games may be a nice, viable route” to maintaining cognitive health. Credit: Steve Zylius / UCI

Results suggest novel approaches to maintaining cognition as we age. Along with adding to the trove of research that shows these games can improve eye-hand coordination and reaction time, this finding shows the potential for novel virtual approaches to helping people who lose memory as they age or suffer from dementia.

METHOD: Before and after the 2wk period, the students took memory tests that engaged the brain’s hippocampus, associated with complex learning and memory. They were given a series of pictures of everyday objects to study...

A new study suggests that receiving rewards as you learn can help cement new facts and skills in your memory, particularly when combined with a daytime nap. The findings from the University of Geneva reveal that memories associated with a reward are preferentially reinforced by sleep. Even a short nap after a period of learning is beneficial.

“Rewards may act as a kind of tag, sealing information in the brain during learning,” says lead researcher Dr Kinga Igloi from the University of Geneva. “During sleep, that information is favourably consolidated over information associated with a low reward and is transferred to areas of the brain associated with long-term memory.”

“Our findings are relevant for understanding the devastating effects that lack of sleep can have on achievement,” s...

Sertraline. Credit: http://www.neurosoup.com/sertraline-zoloft/

The study – conducted in nonhuman primates with brain structures and functions similar to those of humans – found that the antidepressant sertraline, a SSRI, Zoloft, significantly increased the volume of one brain region in depressed subjects but decreased the volume of two brain areas in non-depressed subjects.

“These observations are important for human health because Zoloft is widely prescribed for a number of disorders other than depression,” said Carol A. Shively, Ph.D., professor of pathology-comparative medicine at Wake Forest Baptist.

METHOD: 41 middle-aged female monkeys were fed a diet formulated to replicate that consumed by many Americans for 18 months, during which time depressive behavior in the animals was recor...