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Separating the Functions of the Medial and Lateral Entorhinal Cortex: Differential Involvement in Spatial and Non-spatial Memory Retrieval

Anatomical connectivity and single neuron coding suggest a dissociation of information representation within the lateral and medial entorhinal cortex, a brain region with widespread connections to cortical areas. We aimed to expand this idea by examining differential contribution of these two sub-regions to the retrieval of non-spatial and spatial memory. Inactivation of lateral, but not medial regions severely impaired the retrieval of recently and remotely acquired non-spatial memory while spatial memory remained intact. To link functioning of the lateral entorhinal cortex with the known roles of the hippocampus and medial prefrontal cortex for memory retrieval, communication with these two regions was detected as synchronized oscillations in local field potentials. We found that stronger communication between the lateral entorhinal and prefrontal cortex during stimulus-free periods correlated with better memory performance. The lateral entorhinal cortex therefore may serve as a gateway of memory-related information between the medial prefrontal and other cortical regions.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:TORONTO/oai:tspace.library.utoronto.ca:1807/31349
Date14 December 2011
CreatorsMorrissey, Mark
ContributorsTakehara-Nishiuchi, Kaori
Source SetsUniversity of Toronto
Languageen_ca
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis

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