Hippocampal Formation in the Mouse and Rat — Structural Organization and Development: A Review

Zusammenfassung

The hippocampus is one of the most intensely studied formations of the brain. Such interest in the hippocampus is caused both by its functional role, which is believed to be learning and memory, and by unique peculiarities of the hippocampal organization and development (see reviews in the two-volumed book edited by Isaacson and Pribram 1975, 1985). Being a relatively simple part of the cerebral cortex with respect to its internal structure, the hippocampal formation contains various subregions with different organization and rates of development. In particular, the hippocampal formation as compared with other brain structures has the most protracted span of neurogenesis, which gives an opportunity not only to study certain stages of neurogenesis in detail but to investigate them experimentally using various effects. Finally, the highly ordered structure of the hippocampus and its significant capacity for reinnervation makes the hippocampus a favorite experimental model for the analysis of operational principles of neuronal circuitry and for the study of brain plasticity and regenerative capacity.