The
entorhinal cortex (EC) (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 for
memory and navigation. The EC is the main interface between the
hippocampus and
neocortex. The
EC-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 EC 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.