What is the Hippocampus?
The hippocampus, so named because its shape vaguely resembles that of a seahorse, is responsible for encoding long-term memories and helping with spatial navigation. It’s one of the phylogenetically oldest parts of the brain, and the first part chosen to be artificially replicated as a brain prosthesis. The hippocampus is known to be associated with the consolidation of episodic memories, which are memories of personally experienced events and their associated emotions. In contrast to semantic memories of abstract facts and their associations, episodic memories can be represented as stories. Damage to the hippocampus results in an inability to form new long-term episodic memories, though new procedural memories, such as motor sequences for everyday tasks, may still be learned. In schizophrenia and certain types of severe depression, the hippocampus shrinks. The hippocampus is also known as one of the most highly structured and studied parts of the brain, which is why it was chosen for
