Synonyms
Definition
Medial entorhinal area (MEA) refers to the medial subfield of the entorhinal cortex (EC) of rodents, bats, and a number of mammals with similarly structured brains. Its homologue in human and nonhuman primates is more accurately defined along the posterior, rather than medial, region of the entorhinal cortex. This brain area consists of a six-layered network of interconnected neurons whose patterns of electrical activity are thought to support spatial cognition.
Introduction
To understand the role that the medial entorhinal area (MEA) plays in cognition and behavior, investigators have attempted to identify the principles of structural and functional organization that govern the electrical activity of this brain region. Efforts toward characterizing the cellular organization, or microcircuitry, of the MEA have notably succeeded in identifying a range of morphologically distinct cell types and in describing how these neurons’ cell...
References
Bonnevie, T., Dunn, B., Fyhn, M., Hafting, T., Derdikman, D., Kubie, J. L., … Moser, M. (2013). Grid cells require excitatory drive from the hippocampus. Nature Publishing Group, 16(3), 309–317.
Couey, J. J., Witoelar, A., Zhang, S.-J., Zheng, K., Ye, J., Dunn, B., … Witter, M. P. (2013). Recurrent inhibitory circuitry as a mechanism for grid formation. Nature Neuroscience, 16(3), 318–24.
Hafting, T., Fyhn, M., Molden, S., Moser, M.-B., & Moser, E. I. (2005). Microstructure of a spatial map in the entorhinal cortex. Nature, 436(7052), 801–806.
Klink, R., & Alonso, A. (1997). Morphological characteristics of layer II projection neurons in the rat medial entorhinal cortex. Hippocampus, 7(5), 571–583.
Kohler, C. (1986). Intrinsic connections of the Retrohippocampal region in the rat brain. II. The medial entorhinal area. The Journal of Comparative Neurology, 246, 149–169.
Melzer, S., Michael, M., Caputi, A., Eliava, M., Fuchs, E., Whittington, M. A., & Monyer, H. (2012). Long-range-projecting GABAergic neurons modulate inhibition in hippocampus and entorhinal cortex. Science, 335(6075), 1506–1510.
Sargolini, F., Fyhn, M., Hafting, T., McNaughton, B. L., Witter, M. P., Moser, M.-B., & Moser, E. I. (2006). Conjunctive representation of position, direction, and velocity in entorhinal cortex. Science, 312, 758–762.
Savelli, F., & Knierim, J. J. (2014). Strides toward a structure-function understanding of cortical representations of allocentric space. Neuron, 84(6), 1108–1109.
Solstad, T., Boccara, C. N., Kropff, E., Moser, M.-B., & Moser, E. I. (2008). Representation of geometric borders in the entorhinal cortex. Science, 322(5909), 1865–1868.
Witter, M. P., Doan, T. P., Jacobsen, B., Nilssen, E. S., & Ohara, S. (2017). Architecture of the entorhinal cortex a review of entorhinal anatomy in rodents with some comparative notes. Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience, 11, 46.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Section Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
Rivière, P.D. (2018). Medial Entorhinal Area (MEA). In: Vonk, J., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behavior. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47829-6_1253-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47829-6_1253-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-47829-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-47829-6
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences