The neurophysiology of reminiscence.

When this stimulation of the hippocampal gyrus was carried out, the hippocampal formation and amygdaloid nucleus were still intact. But the rest of the anterior half of the temporal lobe had been removed. The fact that stimulation could still produce a flash-back of former experience would support the suggestion that comes from other evidence (Milner and Penfield, 1958) that the hippocampus of the two sides is, in fact, the repository of the ganglionic patterns that preserve the record of the stream of consciousness. If not the repository, then each hippocampus plays an important role in the mechanism of reactivation of that record (Penfield and Roberts, 1959, Speech and brain mechanisms. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press).