Major Afferent and Efferent Projections to the Hippocampus
By Mark YarchoanThe primary afferent to the hippocampus is the perforant pathway. This pathway beginsin the layer II and III neurons of the entorhinal cortex, and synapses amongst the granular cells of the dentate gyrus, one of two major structures in the hippocampus (Bear 791-2). Terminaldegeneration studies have found that most of the synapses of the perforant path in the dentategyrus arise from perforant axons that begin from the ipsilateral entorhinal cortex. Perforantfibers which begin in the lateral parts of the entorhinal cortex generally project to the outer layersof the dentate gyrus, whereas fibers which begin in the median parts of the entorhinal cortexterminate in deeper regions of the dentate gyrus (Baudry 46-7). Other afferent fibers arise fromthe cingulate gyrus (part of a hippocampus circuit described below), the controlateralhippocampus, and the medial septal nucleus (Arslan 329).The dentate gyrus projects to mossy cells in the hilus of the dentate gyrus, the statumlucidum, and most significantly to the CA3 region of the Ammon’s horn. The axons which project from the dentate gyrus to the CA3 are called mossy fibers. The CA3 neurons in turn project to the CA1, another region of the Ammon’s horn of the hippocampus, by way of theShaffer collateral (Bear 791). The CA1 projects back to deep layers of the entorhinal cortex,thereby completing a circuit – entorhinal cortex to dentate gyrus to CA3 to CA1. A degenerationof the perforant pathway within this circuit is believed to underlie Alzheimer’s disease. Theentorhinal cortex also projects directly back to CA1 through Alvear fibers (Baudry 46-7).In addition to projecting to the CA1, the CA3 neurons also project out of thehippocampus via the fornix and anterior commissure to parts of the frontal cortex, the thalamus,and the hypothalamus, particularly the mammillary bodies. The mammilary bodies project to theanterior nucleus of the thalamus, which projects to the cingulate gyrus. The cingulate gyrus
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I had a flat tire the last time I passed through the Perforant Pathway.