The hippocampus is a major component of the brains of humans and other vertebrates. It belongs to the limbic system and plays important roles in the consolidation of information from short-term memory to long-term memory and spatial navigation. Humans and other mammals have two hippocampi, one in each side of the brain. The hippocampus is closely associated with the cerebral cortex, and in primates is located in the medial temporal lobe, underneath the cortical surface. It contains two main interlocking parts: Ammon's horn and the dentate gyrus.

In Alzheimer's disease, the hippocampus is one of the first regions of the brain to suffer damage; memory problems and disorientation appear among the first symptoms. Damage to the hippocampus can also result from oxygen starvation (hypoxia), encephalitis, or medial temporal lobe epilepsy. People with extensive, bilateral hippocampal damage may experience anterograde amnesia—the inability to form or retain new memories.

In rodents, the hippocampus has been studied extensively as part of a brain system responsible for spatial memory and navigation. Many neurons in the rat and mouse hippocampus respond as place cells: that is, they fire bursts of action potentials when the animal passes through a specific part of its environment. Hippocampal place cells interact extensively with head direction cells, whose activity acts as an inertial compass, and with grid cells in the neighboring entorhinal cortex.

Andrew Lockington is a Canadian film score composer, who composes scores for American and Canadian films. He was born July 31, 1974 in Burlington, Ontario.

Lockington has composed the complete scores for over a dozen films, including the 2008 Tom Hanks-produced film City of Ember. In his early film career, from 1998 to 2002, he also assisted on and orchestrated compositions for numerous films.

Lockington received the Breakout Composer of the Year Award from the 2009 International Film Music Critics Association (IFCMA) Awards, for his scores for Journey to the Center of the Earth and City of Ember. He was also nominated for Best Original Score for a Fantasy/Science Fiction Film, for City of Ember.