A perceptual role of the perirhinal cortex: fact or fiction?

The role of the perirhinal cortex (PER) in memory is well established; however, its role in perception remains controversial. The objective of the current thesis is to revisit this debate by using a series of experiments that aim to replicate and extend the current literature. Our current working model of the PER predicts that the PER will be involved in making perceptual discriminations when the task relies on a high-level visual discrimination that requires a "unitized" representation of the stimulus over features but not in cases where the discrimination could be solved on simple characteristics. In the present set of experiments, results did not provide evidence to support a perceptual role of the PER. However, there were significant limitations in the visual stimuli used in the third experiment. Due to this confound, further studies are necessary before any conclusions to PER function in this capacity can be drawn.