Melbourne :(PTI) Scientists have discovered a gene controlling how a crucial part of the brain develops -- a key finding they claim could help in understanding of how the developing mind can go wrong.

A team at Queensland University has found a mechanism vital to the development of the hippocampus which is a region of the brain that is crucial to memory formation and lifelong production and integration of new nerve cells.

In fact, they have identified a gene that regulates the development of glial cells in hippocampus -- they showed that it contains different populations of glial cells which're essential for the structural integrity of it.

According to lead scientist Professor Linda Richards, glial cells are an important part of the building blocks of the brain and they provide an essential scaffold for migration of neurons in the developing brain.

"It is vital we understand how glial cells provide this structural scaffold because if the hippocampus is not formed correctly it cannot perform all the functions required of it in the developing and adult brain.

"The hippocampus plays an integral role in spatial navigation, learning and memory, and is a major site for adult neurogenesis."

In their study on mice, they found that those animals lacking the gene that regulates glial cell differentiation did exhibit major developmental irregularities, including catastrophic structural deformities of the hippocampus.

Equipped with this knowledge, the researchers studying the hippocampus now have a better understanding of the genes that help control the development of this vital brain region, according to Prof Richards.

The findings of the study has been published in the latest edition of the 'Journal of Neuroscience'.