A role for medial entorhinal cortex in spatial and nonspatial forms of memory in rats

Many studies have focused on the role of the medial entorhinal cortex (MEC) in spatial memory and spatial processing. However, more recently, studies have suggested that the functions of the MEC may extend beyond the spatial domain and into the temporal aspects of memory processing. The current study examined the effect of MEC lesions on spatial and nonspatial tasks that require rats to learn and remember information about location or stimulus-stimulus associations across short temporal gaps. MEC- and sham-lesioned male rats were tested on a watermaze delayed match to position (DMP) task and trace fear conditioning (TFC). Rats with MEC lesions were impaired at remembering the platform location after both the shortest (1 min) and the longest (6 h) delays on the DMP task, never performing as precisely as sham rats under the easiest condition and performing poorly at the longest delay. On the TFC task, although MEC-lesioned rats were not impaired at remembering the conditioning context, they showed reduced freezing in response to the previously associated tone. These findings suggest that the MEC plays a role in bridging temporal delays during learning and memory that extend beyond its established role in spatial memory processing.