<anatomy> Area of mammallian brain and an important preparation
for the study of synaptic plasticity. The hippocampus has been
known since the 1950s to be important for long term memory
storage in humans and other mammals, it is essential for initial
storing of long-term memory for a period of days to weeks before
the memory trace is consolidated elsewhere. Also the site of
long-term synaptic plasticity: see long-term potentiation, which
is exhibited by defined synaptic pathways in the hippocampus.
This entry appears with permission from the Dictionary of Cell
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