Abstract

INTRODUCTION

The hippocampus has been a source of fascination from the very origins of neuroscience as a modern discipline. The complexity of this phylogenetically ancient structure, at both the gross and cellular level, has encouraged study by generations of anatomists. Here is a neural landscape, alluring in its intricacy and beauty, not only to the anatomist on histological section, but also to the modern neuroradiologist or neurologist for whom the latest imaging techniques reveal ever more exquisite detail. The appreciation of its role in memory-processing, its association when damaged with complex partial seizures, the refinement of surgical techniques for intractable epilepsy, and the introduction of more powerful imaging modalities will all ensure the continuing importance of the hippocampus in clinical neuroscience.

The term hippocampus (a mythical horse-headed, fish-tailed sea monster, usually translated today as seahorse) was coined by Giulio Cesare Aranzi in Bologna in 1564 (Lewis 1923). He was also