Lesions of the fornix but not the entorhinal or perirhinal cortex interfere with contextual fear conditioning

The effects of entorhinal cortex lesions, combined entorhinal and perirhinal cortex lesions, and fornix lesions on the conditioning of fear responses (freezing) to contextual stimuli were examined using a conditioning procedure known to produce hippocampal-dependent contextual conditioning. Lesions of the entorhinal and or entorhinal plus perirhinal cortex did not disrupt contextual conditioning, but lesions of the fornix did. None of the lesions affected conditioning to an explicit conditioned stimulus. Given that the entorhinal cortex is the primary linkage between the neocortex and the hippocampus and that the fornix is the primary linkage with subcortical structures, subcortical inputs to and outputs of the hippocampus appear to be sufficient to mediate contextual fear conditioning. As a result, the presumption that neocortical information is required for contextual fear conditioning, and perhaps other hippocampal-dependent functions, should be reevaluated.