Structural organization of the rat hyppocampal formation

The review examines the historical aspects of hippocampus nomenclature. Its anatomical study began by ancient Greeks, who called unusual–looking structure a “ram’s horn” – cornu ammonis. term “hippocampus” (ancient Greek: ἱππόκαμπος, from ἵππος, “horse” and κάμπος, “sea monster”, or “sea-horse”) was first introduced in sixteenth century anatomist J.C. Arantius. “hippocampal formation” is currently applied to group cytoarchitectonically different adjacent areas, including, along with itself, dentate gyrus, subiculum, presubiculum, parasubiculum entorhinal cortex. reason for including these six regions that they are connected each other unique largely unidirectional pathways. devoted spatial, morphological cyto- myeloarchitectonic organization all departments rat formation distinctive neuroanatomic characteristics its departments. Comparative features rat, monkey human described. Although volume about 10 times larger monkeys 100 humans compared rats, basic architecture common, although there some species differences. relatively simple main cellular layers combination highly organized laminar distribution hippocampal neuron processes contributes use as model system modern neuroscience.