There is little doubt you have heard of the hippocampus, but it is likely you did not know there are two of them, the hippocampi. Individually, they look like seahorses, but together, they have the appearance of horns. They are connected to the amygdalae (or amygdalas - I've seen both used), and aid in the formation of short term memories. The movie Memento shows how someone may act with damaged hippocampi. I've written about 60 pages so far in an exploration of my own past, to make sense of behaviors dictated largely by the sympathetic (or autonomic) nervous system. This is turning out to be heady material because each hemisphere of the brain has different functions, but I'm not sure what that means for certain structures, like the limbic system. Does the left limbic system have different functions from the right limbic system? I don't know stuff like that, so my writing has hit some high viscosity. I ordered a neuroscience textbook and I hope that will clear up some mysteries.

The limbic system is of considerable interest to me because it has something to do with anxiety disorders and phobias. It is an old brain structure, also found in reptiles. When we use the limbic system, obviously, we are not consciously invoking it. The amygdala and hippocampus are important because they form the beginning of the limbic system. As I stated above, you can watch a movie to see what happens if the hippocampus is damaged or removed. I'm not sure if a movie has been made about amygdalar damage, but a close approximation would be Clockwork Orange, as it renders one defenseless. I remember reading that some prisons did remove the amydgalae from violent inmates, costing the taxpayers $5,000 per operation, but the former inmates were still capable of nonviolent crimes, like selling drugs.

One of my newest suspicions is that studying the brain may be the most unknown field of study. Think about it. Brains weren't around for a very long time, for longer than 13 billion years. The constituent particles of the brain have been around for at least 13.7 billion years and they've remained the same. However, brains have been around less than 550 million years and have not remained the same. The fact that we have consciousness makes me wonder what is coming next.

i believe that was the first recalled Milton Bradley game,, horny horny hippos...
kids kept winding up in the ER with concussions from getting hit by one of the balls...

That would make for an interesting Far Side comic.

well, i'm in my second year of medical school, and all i can say is that neuroscience was very very difficult, complicated, and is an ever growing field that isnt all mapped out yet.

a good book is the book by young, or by snell.

if you are somewhat good with computers it will make more sense to you how it all works.
what they know, that is.

I got this one.

  I redeemed some bonus points at sciambookclub, so I paid $50 for it.

I came here because I though you said something about a horns section.

Cool to hear.  I'm in my third year of pharmacy school.  We just had out neurology final on Friday, so this topic grabbed my interest.

Neurology is such an interesting topic.  It's neat learning why your body does certain things, and you even come to appreciate things your brain does without you even knowing.  I just wish they knew more about REM sleep and dreams.  That's interesting stuff. 

umm.. i like to watch House on the USA network...

A recent study showed that just 6 minutes of rest is enough to get some REM sleep, with benefits such as increased attention span and reduction of stress. The same researchers want to determine if 2 minutes is also enough to get the same benefits. Colloquially, this is a catnap. I read about it in an issue of Scientific American or Discover sometime earlier this year.

   If you like neuroscience, you must read this.