[The role of hippocampus in long-term memory: dynamic system approach]

Abstract

Several attempts have been made to reconcile a number of concurrent theories on the role of the hippocampus in long-term memory functions. Those attempts fail to explain the basic effects of the theories from the same standpoint. This work is a critical review of the four major theories demonstrating (with the use of mathematical models of attention and memory) that only one of them is capable of reconciling them all by explaining the fundamental effects of each theory in a unified fashion without sacrificing their individual contributions. The key issue here is whether or not a memory trace is ever stored in the hippocampus itself, and there is no reconciliation unless the answer is in the negative.