Brodmann area 27 is a cytoarchitecturally defined cortical area that is a rostral part of the parahippocampal gyrus. It is commonly regarded as a synonym of presubiculum.
The dorsal part of the presubiculum is more commonly known as the postsubiculum, and is of interest because it contains head direction cells, which are responsive to the facing direction of the head.
Periallocortex is one of three subtypes of allocortex, the other two subtypes being paleocortex and archicortex. The periallocortex is formed at transition areas where any of the other two subtypes of allocortex borders with the neocortex (which is also called isocortex).
Thus, the periallocortex is also subdivided to two subtypes. One subtype is called peripaleocortex, which is formed at borders between paleocortex and neocortex. Areas considered to belong to peripaleocortex are for example anterior insular cortex. Another subtype of periallocortex is called periarchicortex. It is formed at borders between archicortex and neocortex. Areas considered to belong to periarchicortex include entorhinal cortex, perirhinal cortex, presubiculum, parasubiculum, retrosplenial cortex, subcallosal area and subgenual area.
The dentate gyrus (DG) is one of the subfields of the hippocampus, in the hippocampal formation. The hippocampal formation is located in the temporal lobe of the brain, and includes the hippocampus (including CA1 to CA4) subfields, and other subfields including the dentate gyrus, subiculum, and presubiculum.
The dentate gyrus is part of the trisynaptic circuit, a neural circuit of the hippocampus, thought to contribute to the formation of new episodic memories, the spontaneous exploration of novel environments and other functions. The dentate gyrus has toothlike projections from which it is named.
The hippocampal subfields are four subfields CA1, CA2, CA3, and CA4 that make up the structure of the hippocampus. Regions described in the hippocampus are the head, body, and tail, and other hippocampal subfields include the dentate gyrus, the presubiculum, and the subiculum. The CA subfields use the initials of cornu ammonis, an earlier name of the hippocampus.
In the rodent, the parasubiculum is a retrohippocampal isocortical structure, and a major component of the subicular complex. It receives numerous subcortical and cortical inputs, and sends major projections to the superficial layers of the entorhinal cortex (Amaral & Witter, 1995).
The parasubicular area is a transitional zone between the presubiculum and the entorhinal area in the mouse (Paxinos-2001), the rat (Swanson, 1998) and the primate (Zilles, 1990). Defined on the basis of cytoarchitecture, it is more similar to the presubiculum than to the entorhinal area (Zilles, 1990), however electrophysiological evidence suggests a similarity with the entorhinal cortex (Funahashi and Stewart, 1997; Glasgow & Chapman, 2007). To be specific, cells in this area are modulated by local theta rhythm, and display theta-frequency membrane potential oscillations (Glasgow & Chapman, 2007; Taube, 1995). Furthermore, cells in the parasubiculum, and neighboring presubiculum, fire in relation to the animal's location in space, suggesting properties similar to place cells. It is postulated that this area may play an integral role in spatial navigation and the integration of head-directional information (Chrobak & Buzsáki, 1994; Taube, 1995).
Periarchicortex is one of two subtypes of periallocortex, the other being peripaleocortex. It is formed at borders between archicortex (a subtype of allocortex) and isocortex and shows slow histological transition from the four-layered structure typical for archicortex to the six-layered structure typical for isocortex.
Cortical areas that are generally considered to belong to periarchicortex, include presubiculum, parasubiculum, entorhinal cortex, perirhinal cortex, retrosplenial cortex, periarchicortical part of cingulate cortex, posterior part of subcallosal area, and subgenual area.