Finding ourselves racking our brains first thing on a Monday morning, trying to remember where we put the car keys is not un uncommon frustration. When those keys are eventually found, we have the hippocampus to thank for.

The hippocampus is a region in the brain which is responsible for storing and retrieving memories of different locations, including that unusual spot where those car-keys were hiding.

Researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Sciences have discovered how the brain is able to store and retrieve data from all the amazingly rich and complex environments we navigate every day.

Fred H. Gage and team have found out how the dentate gyrus, a sub-region of the hippocampus, helps store memories of similar but distinct events and environments separately. They reported their findings in eLife, March 20th, 2013 issue.

Their findings, which give us a better understanding of how the brain stores and distinguishes between separate memories, may also help experts identify how Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative diseases undermine these abilities.



The hippocampus (seen from bottom) has two main parts: the Dentate Gyrus and Ammon’s Horn

Fred Gage, senior author on the paper and the Vi and John Adler Chair for Research on Age-Related Neurodegenerative Disease at Salk, said: