Lateralization of the hippocampus: A review of molecular, functional, and physiological properties in health and disease

The hippocampus is a part of the brain's medial temporal lobe that is located under the cortex. It belongs to the limbic system and helps to collect and transfer information from short-term to long-term memory, as well as spatial orientation in each mammalian brain hemisphere. After more than two centuries of research in brain asymmetry, the hippocampus has attracted much attention in the study of brain lateralization. The hippocampus is very important in cognitive disorders, related to seizures and dementia, such as epilepsy and Alzheimer's disease. In addition, the motivation to study the hippocampus has increased significantly due to the asymmetry in the activity of the left and right hippocampi in healthy people, and its disruption during some neurological diseases. After a general review of the hippocampal structure and its importance in related diseases, the asymmetry in the brain with a focus on the hippocampus during the growth and maturation of healthy people, as well as the differences created in patients at the molecular, functional, and physiological levels are discussed. Most previous work indicates that the hippocampus is lateralized in healthy people. Also, lateralization at different levels remarkably changes in patients, and it appears that the most complex cognitive disorder is caused by a new dominant asymmetric system.

Automated summary

The hippocampus, located in the brain's medial temporal lobe, plays a crucial role in collecting and transferring information for memory consolidation and spatial orientation. It is implicated in cognitive disorders such as epilepsy and Alzheimer's disease. Research on the hippocampus has been motivated by its asymmetry in healthy individuals and its disruption in neurological diseases. This article reviews the structure and importance of the hippocampus in related diseases, and discusses the asymmetry observed in the brain, particularly in the hippocampus, during the growth and maturation of healthy individuals, as well as the changes observed in patients at molecular, functional, and physiological levels.