How does information travel through the perforant path in the hippocampus?

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Patient H.M. and short-term memory loss explained — hippocampus Learn about Henry Molaison (better known as “patient H.M.”), whose short-term memory loss following a lobotomy helped researchers to understand how brain structures are related to brain function.

Within the hippocampus, the perforant path serves as a critical component of the trisynaptic circuit. It functions as the primary route for information to travel from the entorhinal cortex to the dentate gyrus. The pathway is named for its trajectory, as it perforates through the subiculum to reach its destination.1

Once information reaches the dentate gyrus via this path, the trisynaptic circuit continues by forwarding signals to the CA3 region through the mossy fibre pathway, and subsequently to the CA1 region along bundles of axons known as Schaffer collaterals.1