Ethan Cooper
What has always been up interests to me, beyond learning about the literal function of the brain, is studying actual cases of brain damage/disorders and seeing what we have learned about the brain actually apply to life. Perhaps one of the most landmark case studies that brought the study of brain into real life was the story of Phineas Gage. Gage suffered severe damage to his prefrontal cortex after a railroad accident. When an explosion occurred, a large iron rod belted through his skull, leading to severe social impairments. Although the extent of these impairments remains controversial, this laid a foundation for studying specific areas of the brain.
Because I know you readers do not watch football, I would first like to point out that CJ2K (Chris Johnson) is back, and rushed for 195 yards in a Titans win. Now back to the boring stuff...I would like to focus on the Hippocampus because its name is beyond extraordinary. It combines both an animal, the hippo, with a campus, creating a metaphor for success.The hippocampus is the structure of the brain most closely aligned to memory formation. In 1985, Clive Wearing, a English conductor, suffered from encephalitis, inflammation to the brain, which caused damage to the left and the right hippocampus. Although he was at his previous level of intellect and perceptual abilities from before the encephalitis, he has now lost the ability to form new declarative memories. This makes him assume he has always awaken from a coma, and his inability to remember things has taken away a great deal of joy from his life.
While this story is truly sad and unfortunate, it helps us realize the true beauty and power of the brain. That ear-peace/claw game looking like structure, the hippocampus, is literally a life changer, and helps us make new memories each and every day. Now I wish one day I can impair that hippocampus before a psych blog so I can forget to do it!
You're right Ethan. Hippocampus is indeed an excellent word. I would like to add another element to what the hippocampus allows you to do. It allows you to have spatial navigation. This is a part of memory where you remember an environment and its spatial orientation and, therefore, you can navigate around the area and know where you're going. To add to your example, this is almost like what Chris Johnson did today against the Bills. He crafted his way through the defenders AS IF they were standing structures from the play before. Chris knew his way around them and was able to penetrate with ease. I'd say the hippocampus is a pretty important part of our brain, especially if you don't want to end up like Drew Barrymore in "50 First Dates."
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