ABSTRACT
There is an intuitively obvious truth relevant to the general question of the function of the septo-hippocampal system … namely that this system almost certainly does not have one single function. It is patently absurd to take any large component of the brain and to try to attribute to it a single function, spatial mapping, some sort of retrieval function, behavioral inhibition, affect, or whatever … The behavioral effects of hippocampal lesions are as diverse as those observed after destruction of any other major component of the brain, if not more so. The worst we could do is to argue whether it has one function or another. What we should do instead is to try to reach agreement on the nature of the multiple functions the septo-hippocampal system appears to have, and to discuss whether they might be related in some sensible way; in order to discover whether there is some reason why those functions are located together in this part of the brain (p. 417)
