The perirhinal cortex is a point of confluence of much of the sensory information we process. It primarily, but not solely, processes visual information, as it might represent the apex of he visual processing stream by which we become aware of what we see. It has been thought to be the nexus of the creation of memories. This is supported by the case of a patient with selective damage to this area, who exhibits specific impairment in feeling familiarity. 

Syracuse University

One of. the most important insights of research into learning, memory, and the brain. is that our ability to adapt to our environments by acquiring and internalizing information to guide our behavior is supported by multiple memory systems. Many studies have proven there are different configurations of brain neural networks involved in processes supporting remembering experiences and obtaining knowledge, as opposed to those enabling us to acquire skills and develop habits. A dissociation, which has been the subject of much recent inquiry, relates to the neural circuits which enable us to become familiar with individual items in the world, in contrast with those which enable the formation of complex associations. 

Human Memory Systems and their Place in the Learning Process (SDT)

Perirhinal Cortex (SDT)

The hippocampus is a subcortical structure that receives input from the perirhinal cortex, has been identified as a vital locus of memory formation for associations, transitive learning, spatial mapping, and other complex representations. It also appears to be central to our ability to reconstruct the past through recall, as opposed to our ability to experience the simple familiarity of items in our current environment, for which the perirhinal cortex is sufficient. Patients with circumscribed hippocampal damage may be specifically impaired in tests of recall, while their recognition memory of single items is found to be relatively preserved.  

Hippocampus (SDT)

Declarative memory is memory for events and facts, which we may express by conscious, verbalize retrieval, are differently vital for our ability to navigate our world, it might be less obvious why this distinction is relevant to education. The reason the sub-systems of declarative memory can function separately is due not only our ability to remember experiences, but because our acquisition of knowledge, factual and conceptual, begins with the memory-formation processes dependent on the medial temporal structures. This means that people can have grave memory problems, but still remember past events and knowledge in their lives. 

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