Changes to Hippocampus Key in Alzheimer’s Disease Research led by researchers within the Neuroimaging Group UNSW Sydney’s Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing (CHeBA) has found that specific subregions within the hippocampus may be key in understanding Alzheimer’s disease. The hippocampus is one of the regions in the brain that has been frequently used in the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease – the most common type of dementia – with hippocampal volume an important biomarker of the disease. Genetic risk of Alzheimer’s disease is also indicated by hippocampal atrophy. However, its structure is not uniform and is actually separated into subregions. These subregions have been observed to be influenced by genetics as well as age and sex.