The hippocampus is distinguished easily from the rat brain. This is expedient to do quickly for research purposes. Ideally, the selection of the hippocampus does not exceed 30 seconds. It is desirable that an experienced specialist shows the process of highlighting the hippocampus and taught to distinguish the structure of the hippocampus. It is important to prepare a solution of artificial cerebrospinal fluid to store the hippocampus.

Please see the link on the anatomy of the hippocampus (attached to my letter).

http://hargreaves.swong.webfactional.com/seahorse.htm

Simple anatomy... in rodents it has a clear neuronal band a few cells wide which runs like a horn around its edge (CA1 , 2 and 3  ) that ends in a  U-shaped chervon like neuronal band called the dentate gyrus... (It sort of looks like a canine tooth, hence dentate.. meaning tooth like)

Dear Danny,

You do not mention whether you are working on adults or younger animals.  However, you may want to view the following video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Upf15CB29V4

While this video shows adult mouse brain dissection, the same procedure works for the rat.

I have also attached a PDF that was originally cached somewhere here on RG.  It clearly shows the little bit of occipital cortex that must be removed from the hippocampus for a clean dissection for RNA, protein or cell culture work.

Good Luck!

Jill