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LONDON: Johns Hopkins University neuroscientists have identified some part of the hippocampus that creates and processes memory. Their findings are published in the current issue of the journal Neuron.
“You see a familiar face and say to yourself, ‘I think I’ve seen that face.’ But is this someone I met five years ago, maybe with thinner hair or different glasses — or is it someone else entirely,” said James J. Knierim, a professor of neuroscience at the university’s Zanvyl Krieger Mind/Brain Institute who led the research. “That’s one of the biggest problems our memory system has to solve.”
The neural processes in the hippocampus is able to make remember simple things: where you parked your car, where your house is located, and who is the man who sits near you.
“The final job of the CA3 region is to make the decision: Is it the same or is it different?” Knierim said. “Usually you are correct in remembering that this person is a slightly different version of the person you met years ago. But when you are wrong, and it embarrassingly turns out that this is a complete stranger, you want to create a memory of this new person that is absolutely distinct from the memory of your familiar friend, so you don’t make the mistake again.”
