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Role of the parahippocampal cortex in memory for the configuration but not the identity of objects: converging evidence from patients with selective thermal lesions and fMRI

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Bohbot, Véronique D., Allen, John J. B., Dagher, Alain, Dumoulin, Serge O., Evans, Alan C., Petrides, Michael, Kalina, Miroslav, Stepankova, Katerina +1 more·2015·Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
DOI 10.3389/fnhum.2015.00431PMC PMC4522562
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Abstract

The parahippocampal cortex and hippocampus are brain structures known to be involved in memory. However, the unique contribution of the parahippocampal cortex remains unclear. The current study investigates memory for object identity and memory of the configuration of objects in patients with small thermo-coagulation lesions to the hippocampus or the parahippocampal cortex. Results showed that in contrast to control participants and patients with damage to the hippocampus leaving the parahippocampal cortex intact, patients with lesions that included the right parahippocampal cortex (RPH) were severely impaired on a task that required learning the spatial configuration of objects on a computer screen; these patients, however, were not impaired at learning the identity of objects. Conversely, we found that patients with lesions to the right hippocampus (RH) or left hippocampus (LH), sparing the parahippocampal cortex, performed just as well as the control participants. Furthermore, they were not impaired on the object identity task. In the functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) experiment, healthy young adults performed the same tasks. Consistent with the findings of the lesion study, the fMRI results showed significant activity in the RPH in the memory for the spatial configuration condition, but not memory for object identity. Furthermore, the pattern of fMRI activity measured in the baseline control conditions decreased specifically in the parahippocampal cortex as a result of the experimental task, providing evidence for task specific repetition suppression. In summary, while our previous studies demonstrated that the hippocampus is critical to the construction of a cognitive map, both the lesion and fMRI studies have shown an involvement of the RPH for learning spatial configurations of objects but not object identity, and that this takes place independent of the hippocampus.

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  • The temporal cortex, parahippocampal gyrus, and superior temporal gyrus are highly susceptible to AD pathology and are involved in memory.

    “Those regions are highly susceptible to AD pathology and are involved in memory [24, 25].”

    From Control of the temporal development of Alzheimer’s disease pathology by the MR1/MAIT cell axis (2023) · cites this paper as [25]

    The General Discussion (page not provided) links the parahippocampal cortex and gyrus to spatial learning and recall, supporting the memory-related part of the claim. The cited paper does not establish that these regions are highly susceptible to Alzheimer’s disease pathology, nor does it establish a memory role for the superior temporal gyrus. (LLM, conf=0.88)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

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Authors
Bohbot, V. D., Allen, J. J. B., Dagher, A., Dumoulin, S. O., Evans, A. C., Petrides, M., Kalina, M., Stepankova, K., & Nadel, L.
Affiliations
  • Douglas Mental Health University Institute (CA)
  • University of Arizona (US)
  • Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital (CA)
  • Utrecht University (NL)
  • Na Homolce Hospital (CZ)
Corresponding author
Bohbot, Véronique D.
ORCID
Venue
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
Publisher
Frontiers Media SA
Published
2015-08-03
Volume
9
Pages
431-431
ISSN
1662-5161 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.3389/fnhum.2015.00431
PMC
PMC4522562
OpenAlex
W1523928687
Cited by
69
References
5
Citations by year
2026: 4 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 11 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 5 · 2016: 1 · 2015: 1
FWCI
2.60
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
cc-by
Locations
  • Frontiers in Human Neuroscience (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
  • Utrecht University Repository (Utrecht University) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
  • eScholarship@McGill (McGill) (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • James S. McDonnell Foundation
  • Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory and Neural Mechanisms
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory Processes and Influences
  • Physical Sciences › Engineering › Automotive Engineering › Spatial Cognition and Navigation
Keywords
parahippocampal cortex, hippocampus, object memory, object identity, hippocampal lesions, repetition suppression, cognitive maps, spatial learning

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