Older age is associated with a decline in memory processing abilities. Deficits in working and long-term memory have wide spreading, negative effects on cognition and behavior significantly affecting an individual's quality of life. Additionally, progressive memory processing impairment is the most prominent and debilitating symptom in old age neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease. Detailed memory circuits tracing, electrophysiological and behavioral animal studies identify the hippocampal formation as the key hub for memory processing. Brain imaging and magnetic stimulation studies in human participants support the notion of the hippocampus as a memory center. Furthermore, in neurodegenerative disease memory loss is the most prominent symptom and the hippocampus, is one of the first and most affected areas accruing pathological changes such as amyloid beta accumulation, neurofibrillary tangle, deposition, synapse loss, cell death, and neuroinflammatory responses. Despite decades of research, there is no unified theory about the hippocampal mechanisms leading to memory processing deficits in elderly populations with and without cognitive decline. Many studies have previously focused on the synaptic function in the hippocampus but recently the focus is increasingly expanding to hippocampal neural network integrity, neuroplasticity, intrinsic excitability changes, oscillations, myelination and non-neuronal cell activity, and morphological changes.
The aim of this research topic is to provide an overview of the current advances in the understanding of molecular, cellular, and network based mechanisms within the hippocampus that underpin memory processing impairment in ageing and neurodegenerative disease.
Older age is associated with a decline in memory processing abilities. Deficits in working and long-term memory have wide spreading, negative effects on cognition and behavior significantly affecting an individual's quality of life. Additionally, progressive memory processing impairment is the most prominent and debilitating symptom in old age neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease. Detailed memory circuits tracing, electrophysiological and behavioral animal studies identify the hippocampal formation as the key hub for memory processing. Brain imaging and magnetic stimulation studies in human participants support the notion of the hippocampus as a memory center. Furthermore, in neurodegenerative disease memory loss is the most prominent symptom and the hippocampus, is one of the first and most affected areas accruing pathological changes such as amyloid beta accumulation, neurofibrillary tangle, deposition, synapse loss, cell death, and neuroinflammatory responses. Despite decades of research, there is no unified theory about the hippocampal mechanisms leading to memory processing deficits in elderly populations with and without cognitive decline. Many studies have previously focused on the synaptic function in the hippocampus but recently the focus is increasingly expanding to hippocampal neural network integrity, neuroplasticity, intrinsic excitability changes, oscillations, myelination and non-neuronal cell activity, and morphological changes.
The aim of this research topic is to provide an overview of the current advances in the understanding of molecular, cellular, and network based mechanisms within the hippocampus that underpin memory processing impairment in ageing and neurodegenerative disease.