The prefrontal cortex is required for incidental encoding but not recollection of source information in rodents

► Rats experienced a sensory cue in an environment and 24 h later recollected the location at which it was experienced. ► Inactivation of the mPFC during encoding reduced cue-directed attention and impaired encoding of cue location. ► Inactivation of the mPFC during test did not impair recollection of information about the cue location.