This publication is the result of many years of clinical and academic interest in the hippocampus, perhaps the most intriguing structure of the human brain. Damage to this structure, one of the oldest parts of the brain integrated in highly complex networks, causes symptoms ranging from transient dysfunction accompanied by tiny lesions to severely debilitating cognitive disorders with marked tissue loss. Besides the motivation to provide information on clinical function and dysfunction of the hippocampus from a neurologist's point of view, several other chapters arose from discussions with expert colleagues from other neuro science disciplines participating in our collaborative research effort dedicated to 'learning, memory, and brain plasticity'.A\Although overlaps between the different fields of hippocampus research, by their very nature, cannot be avoided completely, the editors allocated the individual contributions to three general sections. Section 1 of the book summarizes the current knowledge regarding structure and physiology of the hippocampus, and establishes the ties to basic neuroscience. Section 2 deals with the function of the hippocampus in humans and its assessment. Finally, Section 3 reviews common pathological conditions affecting the hippocampus with a chapter devoted to the effects of stress on hippocampus-mediated memory function and its relevance for selected disorders.A\We wish to thank the editorial staff at Karger Publishers for their continuous guidance and advice, and all of the contributing authors for the time and effort they have invested in this project. We hope the reader will enjoy the book as much as we did preparing it, and will find it instructional and useful. Michael G. Hennerici, Mannheim; Kristina Szabo, Mannheim

List of Contributors VII

Preface IX

Introduction 1

Structure and Physiology of the Animal and Human Hippocampus

Anatomy of the Hippocampal Formation 6

Structure and Vascularization of the Human Hippocampus 18

Coordinated Network Activity in the Hippocampus 26

What Animals Can Teach Clinicians about the Hippocampus 36

Function and Assessment of the Human Hippocampus

Memory Function and the Hippocampus 51

Neuropsychological Measures of Hippocampal Function 60

Conventional and Diffusion-Weighted MRI of the Hippocampus 71

Functional MRI Studies of the Hippocampus 85

The Hippocampus in Neurological Disorders

The Hippocampus in Neurodegenerative Disease 95

Stress, Memory, and the Hippocampus 109

Epilepsy and the Hippocampus 121

Transient Global Amnesia 143

Hippocampal Stroke 150

Author Index 157

Subject Index 158

中国医科院医学信息研究所