In the final volume of his historical neuroscience trilogy, prize-winning author Alan J. McComas recounts the research that led to recognition of the hippocampus, a structure deep within the brain, as being primarily responsible for memory. This intriguing and exciting account includes observations on patients with memory loss as well as insights from ingenious laboratory experiments. Using several arguments in support, McComas suggests that it is the electrical impulse activity of neurons in the hippocampus that creates consciousness and that the latter is, in fact, the ever-changing sequence of short-term memories. He show us how a deeper knowledge of the hippocampus can help us develop a fuller understanding of Alzheimer's disease and other disorders of memory and behaviour, including 'long COVID'. Lavishly illustrated, Aranzio's Seahorse will be of value not only to neuroscientists, psychologists, and philosophers but to all those interested in the workings of the brain and in the history of its exploration.

Alan J. McComas' profile page

Born in Western Australia, Alan J. McComas received his medical and neurological training in Newcastle upon Tyne (UK), with postdoctoral studies at University College London and the National Hospital for Nervous Diseases, Queen Square, London. He was later appointed Head of Neurology and then of Biomedical Sciences at McMaster University, Canada. Initially specializing in neuromuscular disorders, McComas is best known for having pioneered a method for estimating numbers of motor nerve cells (motoneurons) in the spinal cords and brain stems of living human subjects. Later interests included reflex mechanisms and muscle fatigue, and he (with colleague Adrian Upton) pioneered the use of transcranial magnetic stimulation for the treatment of migraine. As a medical historian, McComas wrote the award-winning Galvani's Spark. The Story of the Nerve Impulse. He is now Emeritus Professor of Medicine (Neurology) at McMaster University.