Episodic Aspects of a Path Navigated Through Hippocampal Neurobiology

As requested by the editors of this special issue of Hippocampus on Scientific Histories of Hippocampal Research, this review provides a detailed personal perspective and historical background on the research involved in a number of findings. The review includes description of the development of the water maze and its use in providing evidence to support the role of the hippocampus in spatial memory function. The review also describes how the water maze was then used in further work to support the proposal that NMDA-dependent synaptic modification in the hippocampus mediates the encoding of new spatial memories. This personal history gives a perspective on the convergence of different streams of physiological, biochemical, theoretical and behavioral research that resulted in these findings on hippocampal function.