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Meta-Analysis
. 2023 Aug 1;44(11):4211-4224.
doi: 10.1002/hbm.26340. Epub 2023 May 20.

Hippocampus long-axis specialization throughout development: A meta-analysis

Emily S Nichols  1   2 , Anna Blumenthal  3 , Elizabeth Kuenzel  1 , Jasmyn K Skinner  1 , Emma G Duerden  1   2   4
Affiliations
Meta-Analysis

Hippocampus long-axis specialization throughout development: A meta-analysis

Emily S Nichols et al. Hum Brain Mapp. .

Abstract

The human adult hippocampus can be subdivided into the head, or anterior hippocampus and its body and tail, or posterior hippocampus, and a wealth of functional differences along the longitudinal axis have been reported. One line of literature emphasizes specialization for different aspects of cognition, whereas another emphasizes the unique role of the anterior hippocampus in emotional processing. While some research suggests that functional differences in memory between the anterior and posterior hippocampus appear early in development, it remains unclear whether this is also the case for functional differences in emotion processing. The goal of this meta-analysis was to determine whether the long-axis functional specialization observed in adults is present earlier in development. Using a quantitative meta-analysis, long-axis functional specialization was assessed using the data from 26 functional magnetic resonance imaging studies, which included 39 contrasts and 804 participants ranging in age from 4 to 21 years. Results indicated that emotion was more strongly localized to the anterior hippocampus, with memory being more strongly localized to the posterior hippocampus, demonstrating long-axis specialization with regard to memory and emotion in children similar to that seen in adults. An additional analysis of laterality indicated that while memory was left dominant, emotion was processed bilaterally.

Keywords: development; fMRI; hippocampus; long-axis specialization; meta-analysis.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Flow diagram of search strategy.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Segmentation of the anterior and posterior divisions of the left (yellow/red) and right (light/dark blue) hippocampus in MNI space.
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
Activation likelihood estimate (ALE) maps for all memory contrasts and all emotion contrasts. Coordinates are in MNI space and overlaid on the anterior/posterior segmentations, L = Left. Clusters were thresholded at a family‐wise error rate of 0.05.
FIGURE 4
FIGURE 4
Distribution of peak cluster coordinates in the hippocampus along the y‐axis for memory and emotion. The y‐coordinate between anterior and posterior portions of the hippocampus is denoted by the dashed line.
FIGURE 5
FIGURE 5
Laterality indices for memory and emotion within the full, anterior, and posterior hippocampus.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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