Ventral Hippocampus: Features of Functional Organization

Dear Colleagues,

The hippocampus is an elongated brain structure that plays a pivotal role in fundamental brain functions such as learning, memory, navigation, and emotionality.  The hippocampus is also implicated in neurological, neuropsychiatric, and neurodevelopmental conditions including anxiety disorders, epilepsy, schizophrenia, and fragile X syndrome.

Along the long axis of the hippocampus three consecutive segments can be roughly distinguished, each of them occupying about a third of the structure: a dorsal (septal), an intermediate, and a ventral (temporal) segment.  The distinction between the successive segments of the hippocampus is based mainly on their anatomical connections with extrahippocampal structures and their different involvement in various brain functions.

Although most of the research on the hippocampus has been carried out on the dorsal hippocampus, research during the last few decades has revealed a wide repertoire of functions in which the ventral hippocampus is profoundly involved, including social memory, anxiety, context-dependent fear, and decision making. Furthermore, the ventral hippocampus is preferentially involved in depression, schizophrenia, epilepsy, and autism. Interestingly, recent accumulated evidence shows that the segregation of functions along the hippocampus is accompanied by substantial diversification at the molecular and cellular levels along the hippocampus. Comparisons between the two extreme segments of the hippocampus, i.e., the ventral and dorsal, have revealed notable features of an intrinsic ventral hippocampus circuit, including increased excitability, narrower range of activity-dependent synaptic plasticity, and relatively high levels of several neuromodulators.

The specializations of the intrinsic organization of the ventral hippocampus are expected to significantly support its functional demands. Therefore, elucidating the details of this organization will help us understanding how this segment of the hippocampus processes information and will gradually contribute to the understanding  of how this organization supports ventral hippocampus-dependent functions. Furthermore, revealing the mechanisms underlying the specific roles that the ventral hippocampus plays in neurological, psychiatric, and neurodevelopmental disorders will advance our ability to design new therapeutic strategies for the treatment of disorders involving the ventral hippocampus.

Prof. Dr. Costas Papatheodoropoulos
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Biology is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• hippocampus
• neurophysiology
• synaptic transmission
• synaptic plasticity
• neurochemistry
• neuromodulation
• behavior
• oscillations
• neuropsychiatric disorders
• neurodevelopmental disorders