Grido’s Book of Random Facts: Volume. 1

A Seahorse in my brain?

The hippocampus is a small area area of the brain that plays major roles in long term memory and spatial navigation.

The name Hippocampus come the Greek words “hippos” and “kampos”, literally meaning “horse sea monster”. Hippocampus is also the name of the genus that seahorses are in. In humans it has a curved and convoluted shape that reminded early anatomists of a seahorse. Nice to know that scientists were sensible back then. 🙂

In rodents, the hippocampus is shaped something like a banana they dont call it the banana though, it’s still called the Hippocampus.