A big breakthrough in the study of the hippocampus occurred almost 50 years ago, in 1971. Prof. John O'Keefe, from London, and his Israeli student Dr. Jonathan Dostrovsky, discovered very special brain cells in the hippocampus of a rat. Prof. O'Keefe discovered that these special cells in the hippocampus respond (meaning send an electrical signal to other cells) when the rat is present in a specific location. However, when the rat is in another location, these cells are quiet and are not electrically active. So, when the researchers recorded the activity of these cells in the hippocampus, they could know something about where the rat was located at that moment. O'Keefe suggested that these cells form some sort of an internal map inside the rat's brain (or human, or monkey), which helps it to know where it is and how to find its way. This map is sort of like an internal "Waze" navigation system, which exists in all mammals and helps them to find their way from one place to another.

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