Summary

The Parahippocampal Place Area (PPA) is an area on the parahippocampal gyrus that is important for recognizing different environments. When this area breaks down you can still recognize the objects and people in a space, but the space itself is more difficult to name.

Function

PPA plays an important role in processing and recognizing environments. The PPA ensures that a place can be recognized. This is done by storing the geometric shapes of a space.

Location

The PPA is part of the parahippocampal gyrus, the brain region surrounding the hippocampus. The hippocampus is located in the medial temporal lobe.

Fact

The PPA is often seen as complementary to the Fusiform Face Area (FFA). This is the area for recognizing faces. Together, these two areas are responsible for processing visual stimuli from your environment.

Patients

Little is known about patients with damage to the PPA because it is not very common. It is certain, however, that such damage will cause the person to have difficulty recognizing spaces or places. People with this problem can recognize and name individual objects in a room. They are just no longer able to perceive a room as a room, or a landscape as a landscape.

Author: Myrthe Princen (translated by Melanie Smekal)