The neural representation of 3-dimensional objects in rodent memory circuits

Sara N. Burke, Carol A. Barnes

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

10 Scopus citations

Abstract

Three-dimensional objects are common stimuli that rodents and other animals encounter in the natural world that contribute to the associations that are the hallmark of explicit memory. Thus, the use of 3-dimensional objects for investigating the circuits that support associative and episodic memories has a long history. In rodents, the neural representation of these types of stimuli is a polymodal process and lesion data suggest that the perirhinal cortex, an area of the medial temporal lobe that receives afferent input from all sensory modalities, is particularly important for integrating sensory information across modalities to support object recognition. Not surprisingly, recent data from in vivo electrophysiological recordings have shown that principal cells within the perirhinal cortex are activated at locations of an environment that contain 3-dimensional objects. Interestingly, it appears that neural activity patterns related to object stimuli are ubiquitous across memory circuits and have now been observed in many medial temporal lobe structures as well as in the anterior cingulate cortex. This review summarizes behavioral and neurophysiological data that examine the representation of 3-dimensional objects across brain regions that are involved in memory.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)60-66
Number of pages7
JournalBehavioural Brain Research
Volume285
DOIs
StatePublished - May 5 2015

Keywords

  • Anterior cingulate cortex
  • Hippocampus
  • Lateral entorhinal cortex
  • Medial prefrontal cortex
  • Object recognition
  • Perirhinal cortex central

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Behavioral Neuroscience

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