Laminating the hippocampus

Lamination of neurons and fibre projections is a fundamental organizational principle of the mammalian cerebral cortex. A laminated organization is likely to be essential for cortical function, as studies in mutant mice have revealed causal relationships between lamination defects and functional deficits. Unveiling the determinants of the laminated cortical architecture will contribute to our understanding of how cortical functions have evolved in phylogenetic and ontogenetic development. Recently, the hippocampus, with its clearly segregated cell and fibre layers, has become a major subject of studies on cortical lamination.