Review
Perceptual–mnemonic functions of the perirhinal cortex

https://doi.org/10.1016/S1364-6613(99)01303-0Get rights and content

Abstract

It is widely acknowledged that the perirhinal cortex, located in the ventromedial aspect of the temporal lobe, is essential for certain types of memory in macaque monkeys. For example, removal of the perirhinal cortex yields severe impairments on tests of stimulus recognition and stimulus–stimulus association. There is considerable disagreement, however, about the most accurate way to characterize the function of the perirhinal cortex; some views emphasize a role in perception whereas others posit a role exclusively in declarative memory. In this article, we review recent findings from anatomical, physiological and ablation studies in monkeys, and discuss related findings obtained in humans, in an attempt to identify not only the cognitive functions of the perirhinal cortex, but also the implications of these findings for theoretical views concerning the organization of memory.

Section snippets

Role of the perirhinal cortex in recognition memory

As previously mentioned, the recent dramatic rise in interest in perirhinal cortex has been due in part to the assignment of a function – what appeared initially to be a central and perhaps selective role in stimulus recognition. Recognition memory in monkeys is usually assessed using the delayed nonmatching-to-sample (DNMS) procedure. In this task, each trial is composed of two parts, sample presentation followed by choice test. The rule for DNMS is ‘if sample A, then choose B but not A on the

Role of the perirhinal cortex in stimulus–stimulus association

Stimulus–stimulus association is usually evaluated through the use of conditional tasks of the form ‘if cue (or sample stimulus) A, then choose X but not Y; if cue B, then choose Y but not X’. In conditional tasks, unlike the matching tasks, the sensory modality of the instruction cue (A or B in the example above) may or may not be the same as that for the choice. For example, an auditory cue might instruct the choice of a particular stimulus based on its visual features (auditory–visual

Acknowledgements

We thank A. Parker and M. Mishkin for comments on an earlier version of this manuscript, and K.S. Saleem for providing the cytoarchitectonic map used in the preparation of the figure for Box 1 (part D).

References (53)

  • M.J. Eacott et al.

    Preserved recognition memory for small sets, and impaired stimulus identification for large sets, following rhinal cortex ablations in monkeys

    Eur. J. Neurosci.

    (1994)
  • M. Meunier

    Effects on visual recognition of combined and separate ablations of the entorhinal and perirhinal cortex in rhesus monkeys

    J. Neurosci.

    (1993)
  • W.A. Suzuki

    Lesions of the perirhinal and parahippocampal cortices in the monkey produce long-lasting memory impairment in the visual and tactual modalities

    J. Neurosci.

    (1993)
  • E.K. Miller et al.

    A neural mechanism for working and recognition memory in inferior temporal cortex

    Science

    (1991)
  • M.W. Brown et al.

    Neuronal evidence that inferotemporal cortex is more important than hippocampus in certain processes underlying recognition memory

    Brain Res.

    (1987)
  • F.L. Fahy et al.

    Neuronal activity related to visual recognition memory: long-term memory and the encoding of recency and familiarity information in the primate anterior and medial inferior temporal and rhinal cortex

    Exp. Brain Res.

    (1993)
  • J.L. Ringo

    Stimulus specific adaptation in inferior temporal and medial temporal cortex of the monkey

    Behav. Brain Res.

    (1996)
  • I.P. Riches et al.

    The effects of visual stimulation and memory on neurons of the hippocampal formation and neighboring parahippocampal gyrus and inferior temporal cortex of the primate

    J. Neurosci.

    (1991)
  • S. Sobotka et al.

    Mnemonic responses of single units recorded from inferotemporal cortex, accessed via transcommissural versus direct pathways: a dissociation between unit activity and behavior

    J. Neurosci.

    (1996)
  • E.K. Miller et al.

    Scopolamine affects short-term memory but not inferior temporal neurons

    NeuroReport

    (1993)
  • L. Li et al.

    The representation of stimulus familiarity in anterior inferior temporal cortex

    J. Neurophysiol.

    (1993)
  • E.A. Murray et al.

    Neural substrates of visual stimulus–stimulus association in rhesus monkeys

    J. Neurosci.

    (1993)
  • M.J. Buckley et al.

    Perirhinal cortex ablation impairs configural learning and paired-associate learning equally

    Neuropsychologia

    (1998)
  • A. Parker et al.

    Lesions of the primate rhinal cortex cause deficits in flavour-visual associative memory

    Behav. Brain Res.

    (1998)
  • S. Goulet et al.

    Effects of lesions of either the amygdala or anterior rhinal cortex on crossmodal DNMS in rhesus macaques

    Soc. Neurosci. Abstr.

    (1995)
  • E.A. Murray et al.

    Removal of the amygdala plus subjacent cortex disrupts the retention of both intramodal and crossmodal associative memories in monkeys

    Behav. Neurosci.

    (1994)

    • Cited by (0)

    View full text
    Published by Elsevier Ltd.