Area 34 - Anterior entorhinal cortex

The entorhinal cortex (ento = interior, rhino = nose, entorhinal = interior to the rhinal sulcus) is an area of the brain located in the medial temporal lobe and functioning as a hub in a widespread network formemory and navigation. The entorhinal cortex is the main interface between the hippocampus and neocortex. The entorhinal cortex-hippocampus system plays an important role in declarative (autobiographical/episodic/semantic) memories and in particular spatial memories including memory formation, memory consolidation, and memory optimization in sleep. The entorhinal cortex is also responsible for the pre-processing (familiarity) of the input signals in the reflex nictitating membrane response of classical trace conditioning, the association of impulses from the eye and the ear occurs in the entorhinal cortex.