In the brain, the perforant path or perforant pathway provides a connectional route from the

entorhinal cortex 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.Integrating time from experience in t ...

to all fields of the

hippocampal formation The hippocampal formation is a compound structure in the medial temporal lobe of the brain. It forms a c-shaped bulge on the floor of the inferior horn of the lateral ventricle. Typically, the hippocampal formation is said to included the dent ...

, including the

dentate gyrus The dentate gyrus (DG) is one of the subfields of the hippocampus, in the hippocampal formation. The hippocampal formation is located in the temporal lobe of the brain, and includes the hippocampus (including CA1 to CA4) subfields, and other su ...

, all CA fields (including CA1), and the

subiculum The subiculum (Latin for "support") also known as the subicular complex, or subicular cortex, is the most inferior component of the hippocampal formation. It lies between the entorhinal cortex and the CA1 hippocampal subfield. The subicular com ...

. Though it arises mainly from entorhinal layers II and III, the perforant path comprises a smaller component that originates in deep layers V and VI. There is a major dichotomy with respect to the laminar origin and related terminal distribution: neurons in layer II (and possibly layer VI) project to the

and CA3, whereas layer III (and possibly layer V) cells project to CA1 and the subiculum via the temporoammonic pathway. In addition to playing a role in

spatial memory In cognitive psychology and neuroscience, spatial memory is a form of memory responsible for the recording and recovery of information needed to plan a course to a location and to recall the location of an object or the occurrence of an event. Sp ...

learning generally, the temporoammonic branch (TA-CA1) of the perforant path mediates spatial memory consolidation. The temporoammonic pathway has also been implicated in stress-based animal models of depression. It may also play a role in temporal lobe seizures.

In rats

In rats, pyramidal and

stellate cell Stellate cells are neurons in the central nervous system, named for their star-like shape formed by dendritic processes radiating from the cell body. These cells play significant roles in various brain functions, including inhibition in the ce ...

s in layer II of

project through the

of the hippocampus, giving rise to the name "perforant pathway". These

glutamatergic Glutamatergic means "related to glutamate". A glutamatergic agent (or drug) is a chemical that directly modulates the excitatory amino acid (glutamate/aspartate) system in the body or brain. Examples include excitatory amino acid receptor agonist ...

fibers form a laminar pattern and terminate in the dentate gyrus and cornu ammonis 3 (CA3) region of the hippocampus. Fibers arising in the lateral portions of the entorhinal cortex show enkephalin immunoreactivity, whereas medial portions appear to contain cholecystokinin. Additionally, pyramidal cells in layer III of the entorhinal cortex send topographic projections along the perforant pathway which branch into the subiculum and CA1.

In mice

In mice, the projection to CA1, and the subiculum all come primarily from EC layer III. According to Suh et al. (2011 Science 334:1415) the projection to CA3 and dentate gyrus in mice is primarily from layer II of entorhinal cortex, and forms a trisynaptic path with hippocampus (dentate gyrus to CA3 to CA1), distinguished from the direct (monosynaptic) perforant path from Layer III of entorhinal cortex to CA1 and subiculum.

References

* Shepherd, GM. ''The Synaptic Organization of the Brain''. New York: Oxford University Press. 1998.

External links

* http://thebrain.mcgill.ca/flash/a/a_07/a_07_cl/a_07_cl_tra/a_07_cl_tra.html {{Papez circuit Hippocampus (brain)