Memory representations in the parahippocampal region

Abstract

Considerable effort in recent years has focused on identifying the functional roles of specific structures within the hippocampal region, and in characterizing the anatomical system in which these structures interact in the service of declarative memory. This chapter begins with a brief overview of the anatomical pathways of this system. It then reviews efforts to understand the functional role of one of its major components, the parahippocampal region, and by comparison, the hippocampus and an example of the closely connected cortical association areas with which the parhippocampal region directly interacts. The analysis of the functional roles of these areas focus on one particular memory test, the delayed nomatch to sample (DNMS) task, which has yielded considerable insights about the nature of memory processing in different parts of the hippocampal memory system.