Understanding memory loss: Development of a retrieval-induced forgetting paradigm in rodents to model adaptive forgetting in the mammalian brain

PEDRO BEKINSCHTEIN; NOELIA WEISSTAUB; MARÍA RENNER; NADIA EDELZSTEIN; MICHAEL ANDERSON

San Diego

Congreso; Society for Neuroscience Meeting 2013; 2013

Society for Neuroscience

Over a century of research has presumed that forgetting reflects passive mechanisms such as decay and interference.In the last two decades, however, a growing human literature on retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF) has pointed toinhibitory control processes that resolve retrieval competition as a cause of adaptive forgetting. However, the lack ofanimal-based models for RIF has precluded the understanding of the neurobiological mechanisms. Using spontaneousrecognition memory in rats, we have successfully developed a rodent paradigm for RIF. We were able to show thatforgetting of an item associated with a particular context happens under conditions that cause competition betweenmemory traces for two items that share a particular retrieval cue. Under these conditions, forgetting is long lasting andindependent of the selected retrieval cue. Our results provide the first evidence that adaptive forgetting occurs innon-human animals.