It is debated whether functional divisions between structures in the medial temporal lobe (MTL) , ). In the latter theory, complex object representations in PrC are capable of supporting memory for objects as well as for object-context associations, particularly when there is a demand to discriminate between highly visually similar objects (Cowell et al., 2010). To adjudicate between these accounts, human participants were scanned while making two different judgments about visually presented objects (is the object common or uncommon, or does the object have more edges or curves). In a subsequent, unscanned, retrieval phase, participants made item (old/new) followed by context (encoding task) judgments about previously seen and novel objects. Neural activity at encoding was separated according to the accuracy of the retrieval judgments. PrC activity predicted successful item-context judgments, a result that remained when itemmemory strength was equated across objects for which the context was remembered or forgotten. These data imply that the function of PrC goes beyond processing item-based memory information, contributing additionally to memory for item-context associations when the stimuli are object
