Posterior parahippocampal gyrus lesions in the human impair egocentric learning in a virtual environment

Functional imaging studies have shown that the posterior parahippocampal gyrus (PHG) is involved in allocentric (world-centered) object and scene recognition. However, the putative role of the posterior PHG in egocentric (body-centered) spatial memory has received only limited systematic investigation. Thirty-one subjects with pharmacoresistant medial temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) and temporal lobe removal were compared with 19 matched healthy control subjects on a virtual reality task affording the navigation in a virtual maze (egocentric memory). Lesions of the hippocampus and PHG of TLE subjects were determined by three-dimensional magnetic resonance imaging volumetric assessment. The results indicate that TLE subjects with right-sided posterior PHG lesions were impaired on virtual maze acquisition when compared with controls and TLE subjects with anterior PHG lesions. Larger posterior PHG lesions were significantly related to stronger impairments in virtual maze performance. Our results point to a role of the right-sided posterior PHG for the representation and storage of egocentric information. Moreover, access to both allocentric and egocentric streams of spatial information may enable the posterior PHG to construct a global and comprehensive representation of spatial environments.