means "sea horse", and is named for its shape. It is one of the oldest parts of the brain, and is buried deep inside, within the limbic lobe. The hippocampus is important for the forming, and perhaps long-term storage, of associative and episodic memories. Specifically, the hippocampus has been implicated in (among other things) the encoding of face-name associations, the retrieval of face-name associations, the encoding of events, the recall of personal memories in response to smells. It may also be involved in the processes by which memories are consolidated during sleep.