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Interestingly, although the hippocampus plays a massive role in memory consolidation, memories are ultimately distributed throughout the cortex. I'm curious wh
by lukeinator42 3y ago
Interestingly, although the hippocampus plays a massive role in memory consolidation, memories are ultimately distributed throughout the cortex.
I'm curious whether this mechanism generalizes to all neurons or is specific to how the hippocampus can learn quickly, especially since the hippocampus is the one place where neurogenesis has been found in adults.
- bjornsing 3y agoWhat evidence is there for this distribution over the whole cortex hypothesis?
- noworld 3y agohttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4526749/#:~:text=The%20available%20evidence%20suggests%20that%20autobiographical%20memories,on%20a%20distributed%20network%20of%20cortical%20regions https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4526749/#:~:tex....
- lukeinator42 3y agoThe classic study of patient H.M., who had his hippocampus removed, showed that the hippocampus isn't where memories are stored long-term https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC497229/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC497229/ (this was one of the first studies to discover the role of the hippocampus in memory). H.M. was still able to recall memories from before the surgery, and numerous animal and human studies have demonstrated this too. The hippocampus connects to most of the cortex, and there is an entire research area looking into hippocampal replay and how it facilitates consolidation, but there definitely isn't a singular place where memories are stored in the brain long-term.
- namero999 3y agoAs Michael Levin's work shows, one doesn't even need a brain or a nervous system for memory https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/brains-are-not-required-when-it-comes-to-thinking-and-solving-problems-simple-cells-can-do-it/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/brains-are-not-re...