Saylor URL: http://www.saylor.org/books Saylor.org
Memory is not confined to the cortex; it occurs through sophisticated interactions between new
and old brain structures (Figure 8.17 "Schematic Image of Brain With Hippocampus, Amygdala,
and Cerebellum Highlighted"). One of the most important brain regions in explicit memory is the
hippocampus, which serves as a preprocessor and elaborator of information (Squire,
1992). [17] The hippocampus helps us encode information about spatial relationships, the context
in which events were experienced, and the associations among memories (Eichenbaum,
1999). [18] The hippocampus also serves in part as a switching point that holds the memory for a
short time and then directs the information to other parts of the brain, such as the cortex, to
actually do the rehearsing, elaboration, and long-term storage (Jonides, Lacey, & Nee,
2005). [19] Without the hippocampus, which might be described as the brain’s “librarian,” our
explicit memories would be inefficient and disorganized.
Figure 8.17 Schematic Image of Brain With Hippocampus, Amygdala, and Cerebellum Highlighted