n.
A long convolution located on the medial surface of the temporal lobe of the brain and forming the lower part of the gyrus fornicatus. Also called hippocampal gyrus.
Parahippocampal gyrus
| Medical Dictionary: par·a·hip·po·cam·pal gyrus |
(păr'ə-hĭp'ə-kăm'pəl)
n.
n.
| 5min Related Video: Parahippocampal gyrus |
| Wikipedia: Parahippocampal gyrus |
| Parahippocampal gyrus | |
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| Human brainstem anterior view (Gyrus parahippocampalis is #7, near center right.) | |
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| Parahippocampal gyrus labeled at bottom center. | |
| Latin | gyrus parahippocampalis |
| MeSH | Parahippocampal+Gyrus |
The parahippocampal gyrus is a grey matter cortical region of the brain that surrounds the hippocampus. This region plays an important role in memory encoding and retrieval.
It has been involved in some cases of hippocampal sclerosis.[1]
Asymmetry has been observed in schizophrenia.[2]
Contents |
Divisions
The anterior part of the gyrus includes the perirhinal and entorhinal cortices.
The term parahippocampal cortex is used to refer to an area that encompasses both the posterior parahippocampal gyrus and the medial portion of the fusiform gyrus.
Function
Scene recognition
The parahippocampal place area (PPA) is a subregion of the parahippocampal cortex that plays an important role in the encoding and recognition of scenes (rather than faces or objects). fMRI studies indicate that this region of the brain becomes highly active when human subjects view topographical scene stimuli such as images of landscapes, cityscapes, or rooms (i.e. images of "places"). The region was first described by Russell Epstein (currently at the University of Pennsylvania) and Nancy Kanwisher (currently at MIT) in 1998,[3] see also other similar reports by Geoffrey Aguirre[4][5] and Alumit Ishai.[6]
Damage to the PPA (for example, due to stroke) often leads to a syndrome in which patients cannot visually recognize scenes even though they can recognize the individual objects in the scenes (such as people, furniture, etc.). The PPA is often considered the complement of the fusiform face area (FFA), a nearby cortical region that responds strongly whenever faces are viewed, and which is believed to be important for face recognition.
Social context
Additional research has increased the probability that the right parahippocampal gyrus in particular has functions beyond the contextualizing of visual background. Tests by a California-based group led by Katherine P. Rankin indicate that the lobe may play a crucial role in identifying social context as well, including paralinguistic elements of verbal communication.[7]
Additional images
 Coronal section |
 Human brain inferior-medial view |
 Basal view of a human brain |
References
- ^ Ferreira NF, de Oliveira V, Amaral L, Mendonça R, Lima SS (September 2003). "Analysis of parahippocampal gyrus in 115 patients with hippocampal sclerosis". Arq Neuropsiquiatr 61 (3B): 707–11. PMID 14595469. http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0004-282X2003000500001&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en.
- ^ McDonald B, Highley JR, Walker MA, et al. (January 2000). "Anomalous asymmetry of fusiform and parahippocampal gyrus gray matter in schizophrenia: A postmortem study". Am J Psychiatry 157 (1): 40–7. PMID 10618011. http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/pmidlookup?view=long&pmid=10618011.
- ^ "A cortical representation of the local visual environment : Abstract : Nature". http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v392/n6676/abs/392598a0.html. Retrieved 2009-11-03.
- ^ "The Parahippocampus Subserves Topographical Learning in Man -- Aguirre et al. 6 (6): 823 -- Cerebral Cortex". http://cercor.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/6/6/823. Retrieved 2009-11-03.
- ^ "Neuron - An Area within Human Ventral Cortex Sensitive to “Building” Stimuli". http://www.neuron.org/content/article/abstract?uid=PIIS0896627300805462. Retrieved 2009-11-03.
- ^ "Distributed representation of objects in the human ventral visual pathway — PNAS". http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/abstract/96/16/9379?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=Ishai&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&resourcetype=HWCI. Retrieved 2009-11-03.
- ^ "Katherine P. Rankin, a Neuropsychologist, Studies Sarcasm - NYTimes.com". http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/03/health/research/03sarc.html?em&ex=1212724800&en=51b0f096761db2f9&ei=5087%0A+. Retrieved 2009-11-03.
External links
- NeuroNames hier-146
- http://www2.umdnj.edu/~neuro/studyaid/Practical2000/Q35.htm
- Temporal-lobe.com An interactive diagram of the rat parahippocampal-hippocampal region
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