Lateral entorhinal cortex in episodic-like memory formation and recall
Within the medial temporal lobe memory system, the main pathway for the transmission of sensory information to the hippocampus is represented by the entorhinal cortex (EC). We have demonstrated that the lateral entorhinal cortex (LEC) activation is crucial for episodic-like memory in mice. In particular, electrophysiology in brain slices revealed that OPCRT specifically induces a shift in the threshold for the induction of synaptic plasticity in LEC superficial layer II. Additionally, a dual viral system was used to express chemogenetic receptors coupled to the c-Fos promoter in neurons recruited during the learning. The inhibition of LEC neurons impairs the performance of the mice in the memory task, while their stimulation significantly facilitates memory recall. Our findings provide evidence for an episodic-like memory engram in the LEC and emphasize its role in memory processing within the broader network of episodic memory (Tozzi et al., 2024).