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What is the entorhinal and perirhinal cortex?

Author

Christopher Anderson

Published Feb 15, 2026

What is the entorhinal and perirhinal cortex?

The perirhinal cortex (PRC) plays a role in object recognition memory, while the hippocampus is required for certain forms of spatial memory and episodic memory. The lateral entorhinal cortex (LEC) receives direct projections from PRC and is one of the two major cortical inputs to the hippocampus.

What is the role of entorhinal cortex?

Anatomical terms of neuroanatomy The entorhinal cortex (EC) is an area of the brain’s allocortex, located in the medial temporal lobe, whose functions include being a widespread network hub for memory, navigation, and the perception of time. The EC is the main interface between the hippocampus and neocortex.

What is parahippocampal cortex?

The parahippocampal cortex (PHC) encompasses a large portion of the medial temporal lobe. It is located at the junction between brain regions described as essential to memory formation (e.g., the hippocampus) and high level visual processing (e.g., the fusiform cortex).

What does the hippocampus cortex do?

Hippocampus is a brain structure embedded deep in the temporal lobe of each cerebral cortex. It is an important part of the limbic system, a cortical region that regulates motivation, emotion, learning, and memory.

What is Perirhinal?

The perirhinal cortex is a cortical region in the medial temporal lobe that is made up of Brodmann areas 35 and 36. It receives highly processed sensory information from all sensory regions, and is generally accepted to be an important region for memory.

Where is the perirhinal cortex?

medial temporal lobe
Anatomically, the perirhinal cortex sits at the boundary between the medial temporal lobe and the ventral visual pathway. It has prominent interconnections not only with both these systems, but also with a wide range of unimodal and polymodal association areas.

Is the entorhinal cortex in the limbic system?

The limbic system includes the hippocampal formation, amygdala, septal nuclei, cingulate cortex, entorhinal cortex, perirhinal cortex, and parahippocampal cortex. These last three cortical areas comprise different portions of the temporal lobe.

Is entorhinal cortex part of neocortex?

The entorhinal cortex is part of the medial temporal lobe or hippocampal memory system and constitutes the major gateway between the hippocampal formation and the neocortex.

Is the entorhinal cortex the same as parahippocampal gyrus?

The parahippocampal gyrus is the most medial of the group of 3 gyri that form the inferior surface of the temporal lobe. The entorhinal, perirhinal, and parahippocampal cortices to- gether, therefore, make up the parahippocampal gyrus.

Is parahippocampal gyrus neocortex?

This comprises the hippocampus, dentate gyrus and subiculum. The subiculum is a transitional zone between the three-layered hippocampal archecortex and the six-layered neocortex of the parahippocampal gyrus.

Is the entorhinal cortex part of the limbic system?

The limbic system includes the hippocampal formation, amygdala, septal nuclei, cingulate cortex, entorhinal cortex, perirhinal cortex, and parahippocampal cortex. (Some experts would also include parts of the hypothalamus, thalamus, midbrain reticular formation, and olfactory areas in the limbic system.)

What is amygdala and hippocampus?

The amygdala is a region of the brain that is concerned with the functions of motivation and emotion. The hippocampus is an area of the brain which functions in creating some types of memory, is involved in learning and in bringing about certain behaviors linked to emotional responses.