Unlocking the Mystery of the Brain: The Molecular Theory of the Mind

Author: Chen Dingxue
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-12-01
Features: Why is the hippocampus considered a "brain display"? For many years, many neuroscientists have studied the hippocampus, with most of their attention focused on the relationship between the hippocampus and memory. Few have linked the hippocampus to the brain's "display," so the "hippocampus display hypothesis" is a bold hypothesis. However, it is not purely a baseless guess or imagination; there are many facts and experiments that can support this hypothesis. (1) Among all senses, vision holds the most significant importance, as at least 70% of external information is received, processed, and perceived by the visual system. For animals, among all visual information, image information is the most important. This is because animals rely on image information in their survival activities, such as finding food, avoiding predators, mating, and raising offspring. If an animal cannot see the image of food, it will find it difficult to locate it; if it cannot promptly see the image of a predator, it is highly likely to lose its life. Therefore, image information is the most important for animal survival. The primary function of the hippocampus is likely to be displaying images, meaning the hippocampus is the "display" in the brain. Neuroscientist Kada's experiment clearly illustrates this point. To understand the function of the hippocampus, Kada conducted an experiment where he destroyed the hippocampus in the brains of rats. As a result, the experimental rats could no longer navigate the maze to find food as normal rats could. Since the hippocampus is the brain's image "display," when it is destroyed, the rat's brain cannot display the image of the maze and food, so it cannot navigate the maze to find food. P123