Dorsolateral periaqueductal gray stimulation prior to retrieval potentiates a

CRISTIANE R. MOCHNYA, GRASIELLE C. KINCHESKIA, VÍCTOR A. MOLINAB, ANTONIO P. CAROBREZA

ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2013 vol. 237 p. 76 - 76

font size="1"> The association of a neutral context with an aversive stimulus, such as foot-shock, result in a contextual fear memory. A growing number of evidence have revealed that prior exposure to diverse threatening situations facilitates the encoding of fear memory during acquisition and such reports support the widespread notion that emotionally arousal results in stronger and long-lasting memories. However, few studies have investigated if a threatening experience can affect the recall and the persistence of such fear memory trace. To test the hypothesis that an emotionally negative experience could modify the retrieval of a memory and potentiate the expression of a fear memory, the present study used the chemical stimulation (microinjection of NMDA) of the dorsolateral periaqueductal gray matter (dlPAG) of rats in order to induce an aversive emotional state. Such stimulation was performed one day after a weak fear training protocol, and the fear expression was analyzed in