Abstract
Spatial navigation requires memory representations of landmarks and other navigation cues. The retrosplenial cortex (RSC) is anatomically positioned between limbic areas important for memory formation, such as the hippocampus (HPC) and the anterior thalamus, and cortical regions along the dorsal stream known to contribute importantly to long-term spatial representation, such as the posterior parietal cortex. Damage to the RSC severely impairs allocentric representations of the environment, including the ability to derive navigational information from landmarks. The specific deficits seen in tests of human and rodent navigation suggest that the RSC supports allocentric representation by processing the stable features of the environment and the spatial relationships among them. In addition to spatial cognition, the RSC plays a key role in contextual and episodic memory. The RSC also contributes importantly to the acquisition and consolidation of long-term spatial and contextual memory through its interactions with the HPC. Within this framework, the RSC plays a dual role as part of the feedforward network providing sensory and mnemonic input to the HPC and as a target of the hippocampal-dependent systems consolidation of long-term memory.
Highlights
HUMAN NEUROSCIENCEContext, and long-term memory: the role of the retrosplenial cortex in spatial cognition
Navigating within a familiar environment requires a neural representation of the navigation cues that define the environment and the spatial relationships among them
Subjects sometimes navigate using a response strategy, they are capable of using knowledge about the spatial layout of the environment in order to navigate flexibly toward a goal—an ability that is supported by interactions between the hippocampus (HPC), the anterior thalamic nuclei (ATN), and a network of cortical regions including the parahippocampal cortex, retrosplenial cortex (RSC), and posterior parietal cortex (O’Keefe and Dostrovsky, 1971; Moser et al, 2008; Calton and Taube, 2009; Vann et al, 2009)
Summary
Context, and long-term memory: the role of the retrosplenial cortex in spatial cognition. The retrosplenial cortex (RSC) is anatomically positioned between limbic areas important for memory formation, such as the hippocampus (HPC) and the anterior thalamus, and cortical regions along the dorsal stream known to contribute importantly to long-term spatial representation, such as the posterior parietal cortex. The RSC contributes importantly to the acquisition and consolidation of long-term spatial and contextual memory through its interactions with the HPC. Within this framework, the RSC plays a dual role as part of the feedforward network providing sensory and mnemonic input to the HPC and as a target of the hippocampal-dependent systems consolidation of long-term memory
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