The medial prefrontal cortex-lateral entorhinal cortex circuit is essential for episodic-like memory and associative object-recognition.
The prefrontal cortex directly projects to the lateral entorhinal cortex (LEC), an important substrate for engaging item-associated information and relaying the information to the hippocampus. Here we ask to what extent the communication between the prefrontal cortex and LEC is critically involved in the processing of episodic-like memory. We applied a disconnection procedure to test whether the interaction between the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and LEC is essential for the expression of recognition memory. It was found that male rats that received unilateral NMDA lesions of the mPFC and LEC in the same hemisphere, exhibited intact episodic-like (what-where-when) and object-recognition memories. When these lesions were placed in the opposite hemispheres (disconnection), episodic-like and associative memories for object identity, location and context were impaired. However, the disconnection did not impair the components of episodic memory, namely memory for novel object (what), object place (where) and temporal order (when), per se. Thus, the present findings suggest that the mPFC and LEC are a critical part of a neural circuit that underlies episodic-like and associative object-recognition memory.
Center for Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Düsseldorf, Universitätsstr. 1, Düsseldorf, 40225, Germany.
Owen Y
OY
Chao
Center for Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Düsseldorf, Universitätsstr. 1, Düsseldorf, 40225, Germany.
Joseph P
JP
Huston
Department of Psychology, National Chung Cheng University, Minhsiung, Chiayi, 62102, Taiwan.
Jay-Shake
JS
Li
Center for Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Düsseldorf, Universitätsstr. 1, Düsseldorf, 40225, Germany.
An-Li
AL
Wang
Center for Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Düsseldorf, Universitätsstr. 1, Düsseldorf, 40225, Germany.
Maria A
MA
de Souza Silva
D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000818:Animals; D018728:Entorhinal Cortex / Q000293:injuries / Q000502:physiology*; D018690:Excitatory Amino Acid Agonists / Q000633:toxicity; D005106:Exploratory Behavior / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D018782:Maze Learning / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D061212:Memory, Episodic; D016202:N-Methylaspartate / Q000633:toxicity; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000293:injuries / Q000502:physiology*; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000502:physiology*; D065852:Spatial Memory / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology
D018690:Excitatory Amino Acid Agonists; D016202:N-Methylaspartate
associative memory; entorhinal cortex; episodic memory; object recognition; prefrontal cortex