Word: hippocampus
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...HIPPOCAMPUS...
WHAT IT DOES: One of the brain's memory centers. One layer of the hippocampus, the subiculum, helps recognize contexts that represent danger or reward...
...average, much larger than those of their unaffected peers. Perhaps they just had more fear circuits to contend with? Neuroscientists are tempted to say yes, but they admit the conclusion is pretty speculative. Another group of researchers found that patients with post-traumatic stress disorder had a smaller hippocampus than normal. Perhaps their stressful experiences had somehow interfered with the hippocampus' ability to make new memories and, just as important, forget the old ones? Again, no one knows for sure...
...mistake, however, to think that pills alone can soothe your neurochemistry. Remember the cortex? That's where you would expect psychotherapy to work, increasing the repertoire of calming messages that can be passed along to the amygdala. Certain desensitization techniques can also help the brain learn, through the hippocampus, to be less reactive. Of course, you have to do it right. Reliving a trauma too soon after it happened could also make the memory harder to erase...
STRESS-HORMONE BOOST Responding to signals from the hypothalamus and pituitary gland, the adrenal glands pump out high levels of the stress hormone cortisol. Too much cortisol shortcircuits the cells in the hippocampus, making it difficult to organize the memory of a trauma or stressful experience. Memories lose their context and become fragmented...