The Hippocampus from Cells to Systems ― Structure, Connectivity, and Functional Contributions to Memory and Flexible Cognition

The hippocampus has long been considered a critical substrate in the neurobiology, neuropsychology, and cognitive neuroscience of memory. Over the past few decades, a number of ground-breaking theoretical and methodological advances have radically enhanced our understanding of the structure and function of the hippocampus and revolutionized the neuroscientific study of memory. Cutting across disciplines and approaches, these advances offer novel insights into the molecular and cellular structure and physiology of the hippocampus, the role of hippocampus in the formation, (re)consolidation, enhancement, and retrieval of memory across time and development, and permit investigators to address questions about how the hippocampus interacts, functionally and anatomically, with other neural systems in service of memory. In addition, recent investigations also suggest that the mechanistic properties and functional processing features of the hippocampus permit broader contributions to cognition, beyond memory, to the domains of attention, decision-making, language, social cognition, and a variety of other capacities that are critical for flexible cognition and behavior. These advances have profound implications for the neurobiology and cognitive neuroscience of hippocampus dependent cognition and for the numerous psychiatric and neurological diseases and disorders for which hippocampal pathology is a hallmark such as Alzheimer’s disease and schizophrenia.
The goal of this book is to bring together in a single source an integrated review of these advances providing state of the art treatment on the structure and function of the hippocampus. Contributors will examine the hippocampus from a variety of levels (from cells to systems) using a wide range of methods (from neurobiological approaches in non-human animals to neuroimaging and neuropsychological work in humans). 

Deborah Hannula is an Assistant Professor at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee (UWM) in the Psychology Department. A member of the Neuroscience Faculty, she runs the MINDfull of Memory LAB at UWM.

Research Interests:

Research conducted in my lab is designed to investigate the cognitive processes and neural substrates of human memory. At the broadest level, my research is best characterized by three overarching themes:

1) Investigations of the link between indirect, eye-movement-based memory measures and behavioral reports/awareness;

?2) Characterization of the time-course and neural substrates of relational memory retrieval; and

3) Investigations of medial temporal lobe (MTL) contributions to performance on short-term or working memory tests.

Particular emphasis is also placed on examining the contributions of anatomically distinct MTL structures to memory for items vs. memory for inter-item relationships.

These issues are addressed with multiple research methods, including behavioral, eye-movement, and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies in neurologically intact subjects and amnesic patients with MTL damage. It is our hope that this research might ultimately contribute to new directions in the diagnosis and treatment of memory impairment that is evident in so many psychiatric (e.g., schizophrenia, depression) and neurological (e.g., traumatic brain injury, Alzheimer’s Disease, stroke) conditions.

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Melissa Duff?is an Assistant Professor in Communication Sciences and Disorders at the University of Iowa in Iowa City.

Melissa Duff's research interests include the cogniti

ve processes and neural substrates supporting real-world learning, complex communication, and social interaction.