Untangling memory from perception in the medial temporal lobe

An active debate in the learning and memory literature centers on the question of whether the perirhinal cortex, part of the medial temporal lobe (MTL), plays its major role in declarative/relational learning and memory or if it also makes an important contribution to high- level perception, similar to the functions of the adjacent visual area TE. Here I consider evidence from neuroanatomical and neurophysiological studies and argue that the perirhinal cortex has distinct and dissociable structure and function from area TE, making its major contribution to declarative/relational learning and memory. I propose additional neurophysiological studies that could help differentiate between these two debated roles of the perirhinal cortex: memory alone or memory plus high-level perception.