An appetitive experience after fear memory destabilization attenuates fear retention: involvement GluN2B-NMDA receptors in the Basolateral Amygdala Complex

MOLINA VICTOR ALEJANDRO

learning and memory

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press

Año: 2016 vol. 23 p. 465 - 465

1549-5485

t is known that a consolidated memory can return to a labile state and become transiently malleable following reactivation.This instability is followed by a restabilization phase termed reconsolidation. In this work, we explored whether an unrelatedappetitive experience (voluntary consumption of diluted sucrose) can affect a contextual fear memory in rats during thereactivation-induced destabilization phase. Our findings show that exposure to an appetitive experience following reactivationcan diminish fear retention. This effect persisted after 1 wk. Importantly, it was achieved only under conditions thatinduced fear memory destabilization. This result could not be explained as a potentiated extinction, because sucrose wasunable to promote extinction. Since GluN2B-containing NMDA receptors in the basolateral amygdala complex (BLA)have been implicated in triggering fear memory destabilization, we decided to block pharmacologically these receptorsto explore the neurobiological bases of