Definition of Hippocampus

1. Noun. A complex neural structure (shaped like a sea horse) consisting of grey matter and located on the floor of each lateral ventricle; intimately involved in motivation and emotion as part of the limbic system; has a central role in the formation of memories.

Generic synonyms: Neural Structure
Group relationships: Limbic Brain, Limbic System, Visceral Brain

2. Noun. Seahorses.
Exact synonyms: Genus Hippocampus
Generic synonyms: Fish Genus
Group relationships: Family Syngnathidae, Syngnathidae
Member holonyms: Sea Horse, Seahorse

Definition of Hippocampus

1. n. A fabulous monster, with the head and fore quarters of a horse joined to the tail of a dolphin or other fish (Hippocampus brevirostris), -- seen in Pompeian paintings, attached to the chariot of Neptune.

Definition of Hippocampus

1. Noun. A mythological creature with the front head and forelimbs of a horse and the rear of a dolphin; a hippocamp. ¹

2. Noun. (anatomy) A part of the brain located inside the temporal lobe, consisting mainly of grey matter. It is a component of the limbic system and plays a role in memory and emotion. So named because of its resemblance to the seahorse. ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Definition of Hippocampus

1. [n -CAMPI]

Medical Definition of Hippocampus

1. 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 and Molecular Biology (11 Mar 2008)

Lexicographical Neighbors of Hippocampus

hippoboscid
hippoboscids
hippocalcin
hippocamp
hippocampal
hippocampal commissure
hippocampal fissure
hippocampal sclerosis
hippocampal sulcus
hippocampally
hippocampi
hippocampocortical
hippocamps
hippocampus (current term)
hippocampus major
hippocampus minor
hippocaust
hippocausts
hippocentaur
hippocentaurs
hippocephalic
hippocras
hippocrases
hippocrates
hippocratic
hippocratic face
hippocratic facies
hippocratic fingers

Literary usage of Hippocampus

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. Anatomy, Descriptive and Surgical by Henry Gray (1901)
"If a transverse section is made through the hippocampus major, ... To the outer side and parallel with the hippocampus major an elongated eminence, ..."

2. The Anatomy of the Nervous System from the Standpoint of Development and by Stephen Walter Ranson (1920)
"The hippocampus.—An olfactory center of still higher order is represented by the ... hippocampus < Uncus Dentate fascia of hippocampus Hippocampal gyrus ..."

3. Dictionary of Philosophy and Psychology: Including Many of the Principal by James Mark Baldwin (1901)
"A complicated fibre system connecting the hippocampus with other parts of the ... hippocampus. The cornu ammonis or caudo- median portion of the cerebral ..."

4. Quain's Elements of Anatomy by Jones Quain, Allen Thomson, George Dancer Thane (1882)
"THE able differences of structure occur at the incurved margin of the he the region of the cornu ammonia or hippocampus major, and in the lobe. ..."

5. The Journal of Anatomy and Physiology by Anatomical Society of Great Britain and Ireland (1899)
"By JG M'C-ARTHY, MD, Senior Demonstrator of Anatomy, M'Gill University, Montreal.1 BY a new method in the dissection of the hippocampus major, ..."

6. Brain and Spinal Cord: A Manual for the Study of the Morphology and Fibre by Emil Villiger (1918)
"hippocampus AND GYRUS DENTATUS. The hippocampus, or cornu Ammonis, and the gyrus dentatus represent two special convolutions. ..."

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