Gated informational transfer within the mammalian hippocampus: a new hypothesis

Presented here is a position paper that advocates a novel and testable hypothesis concerning the role and function of the mammalian hippocampal formation especially with regards to neonatal neural development. The present paper is based upon recent electrophysiological and biochemical studies of the developing rabbit hippocampus and proposes that by gating the transfer of sensory information through the trisynaptic circuit, the hippocampus allows, in a permissive sense, the buildup of cognitive maps, either in the hippocampus itself, or in other brain loci such as the neocortex. The model makes certain predictions that can be experimentally tested and therefore may prove useful for organizing future data in research into hippocampal function.