Object-in-place Memory Predicted by Anterolateral Entorhinal Cortex and Parahippocampal Cortex Volume in Older Adults

Abstract

The lateral portion of the entorhinal cortex is one of the first brain regions affected by tau pathology, an important biomarker for Alzheimer disease. Improving our understanding of this region's cognitive role may help identify better cognitive tests for early detection of Alzheimer disease. Based on its functional connections, we tested the idea that the human anterolateral entorhinal cortex (alERC) may play a role in integrating spatial information into object representations. We recently demonstrated that the volume of the alERC was related to processing the spatial relationships of the features within an object [Yeung, L. K., Olsen, R. K., Bild-Enkin, H. E. P., D'Angelo, M. C., Kacollja, A., McQuiggan, D. A., et al. Anterolateral entorhinal cortex volume predicted by altered intra-item configural processing. Journal of Neuroscience, 37, 5527–5538, 2017]. In this study, we investigated whether the human alERC might also play a role in processing the spatial relationships between an object and its environment using an eye-tracking task that assessed visual fixations to a critical object within a scene. Guided by rodent work, we measured both object-in-place memory, the association of an object with a given context [Wilson, D. I., Langston, R. F., Schlesiger, M. I., Wagner, M., Watanabe, S., & Ainge, J. A. Lateral entorhinal cortex is critical for novel object-context recognition. Hippocampus, 23, 352–366, 2013], and object-trace memory, the memory for the former location of objects [Tsao, A., Moser, M. B., & Moser, E. I. Traces of experience in the lateral entorhinal cortex. Current Biology, 23, 399–405, 2013]. In a group of older adults with varying stages of brain atrophy and cognitive decline, we found that the volume of the alERC and the volume of the parahippocampal cortex selectively predicted object-in-place memory, but not object-trace memory. These results provide support for the notion that the alERC may integrate spatial information into object representations.

Memorability of photographs in subjective cognitive decline and mild cognitive impairment: Implications for cognitive assessment

“…Indeed, activity in medial temporal lobe regions shows early and automatic sensitivity to the memorability of an image in healthy individuals [8]. Furthermore, older adults at risk for MCI first show volume decrease in the entorhinal cortex, resulting in impairments in object location memory [23,24] and object discrimination [25]. The diagnostic images, with their higher scene complexity and several manmade objects, may be most affected by early object processing deficits.…”

Familiarity impairments after anterior temporal-lobe resection with hippocampal sparing: Lessons learned from case NB

“…neuroimaging research in humans is that (anterolateral) entorhinal cortex integrates location information into object representations (Yeung et al, 2019). Perirhinal cortex representations, by contrast, do not appear to carry such spatial information about items (see Connor and Knierim, 2017 for review of related research in other species).…”

The ratio of posterior–anterior medial temporal lobe volumes predicts source memory performance in healthy young adults

“…Similarly, to the best of our knowledge, the relationship between PHC volume and cognition has been exclusively examined in aging and clinical populations. In a recent study of patients with PHC lesions (Bohbot et al, 2015), and a study of older adults in varying stages of cognitive decline (Yeung et al, 2019), positive correlations between PHC volume and spatial processing ability were observed.…”