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. 2014 Jan;219(1):255-67.
doi: 10.1007/s00429-012-0497-z. Epub 2012 Dec 27.

Bigger is better! Hippocampal volume and declarative memory performance in healthy young men

Sebastian T Pohlack  1 , Patric Meyer, Raffaele Cacciaglia, Claudia Liebscher, Stephanie Ridder, Herta Flor
Affiliations

Bigger is better! Hippocampal volume and declarative memory performance in healthy young men

Sebastian T Pohlack et al. Brain Struct Funct. 2014 Jan.

Abstract

The importance of the hippocampus for declarative memory processes is firmly established. Nevertheless, the issue of a correlation between declarative memory performance and hippocampal volume in healthy subjects still remains controversial. The aim of the present study was to investigate this relationship in more detail. For this purpose, 50 healthy young male participants performed the California Verbal Learning Test. Hippocampal volume was assessed by manual segmentation of high-resolution 3D magnetic resonance images. We found a significant positive correlation between putatively hippocampus-dependent memory measures like short-delay retention, long-delay retention and discriminability and percent hippocampal volume. No significant correlation with measures related to executive processes was found. In addition, percent amygdala volume was not related to any of these measures. Our data advance previous findings reported in studies of brain-damaged individuals in a large and homogeneous young healthy sample and are important for theories on the neural basis of episodic memory.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Manual segmentation of the hippocampus and the amygdala. a For the tracing of the hippocampus, each brain was realigned along its longitudinal axis. b Magnification of the sagittal view showing the outlined hippocampus. This step enhances segmentation accuracy in critical coronal slices. c Final coronal segmentation started always at the posterior end of the hippocampus. d Exemplary coronal slice of the hippocampal head. e For the amygdala tracing, the brains remained oriented along the anterior–posterior commissure (AC–PC) line as originally measured. f Magnification of the sagittal view showing how the hippocampal head was separated from the amygdala. g Again, segmentation was conducted from the posterior part to the anterior end of the amygdala. h Exemplary slice of the left and right amygdala. Details on the segmentation protocols can be found in the “Materials and methods” section
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Three-dimensional rendering of the left and the right hippocampus (a). Scatterplots, including lines of best fit, showing the relationship between the normalized hippocampal volume in % and b short-delay retention, c long-delay retention, and d discriminability performance
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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