Contributions of the ventral parietal cortex to declarative memory.

Our understanding of the role that ventral parietal cortex (VPC) plays in declarative memory processes has changed dramatically over the last two decades. The goal of this chapter is to provide a concise overview data concerning VPC involvement in episodic memory (EM), and to connect this data to several key theories of VPC function. We review evidence from five methodological domains in cognitive neuroscience: neuropsychological lesion evidence, univariate activation studies, multivoxel pattern analyses, functional connectivity studies, and brain stimulation experiments. We discuss how the body of empirical work bears on putative mnemonic functions of VPC related to attention and stimulus representation, and detail the strengths and weaknesses of related theories. Lastly, we identify several broad conceptual questions raised by recent investigations, and outline directions for future research.