Role of Medial Prefrontal Cortex Serotonin 2A Receptors in the Control of Retrieval of Recognition Memory in Rats

BEKINSCHTEIN, PEDRO; MARIA RENNER; CAROLINA GONZALEZ; NOELIA WEISSTAUB

Buenos Aires

Conferencia; XXVIII Congreso Anual de la Sociedad Argentina de Investigaciones en neurocienicas; 2013

Sociedad Argentina de Investigaciones en Neurociencias

Retrieval cues are not uniquely related to one specific memory, which could lead to memory interference. Controlling interference is particularly important during episodic memory retrieval or when remembering specific events in a spatio-temporal context. Despite a clear involvement of Prefrontal Cortex (PFC) in episodic memory in human studies, information regarding the mechanisms and neurotransmitter systems in PFC involved in memory is scarce. Although the serotoninergic system has been linked to PFC functionality and modulation, its role in memory processing and particularly is poorly understood. We hypothesized that the serotoninergic system in PFC, particularly the 5-HT2A receptor could have a role in the control of memory retrieval. In this work we used different versions of the object recognition task in rats to study the role of the serotoninergic modulation in the medial PFC (mPFC) in memory retrieval. We found that blockade of 5-HT2A receptor in mPFC affects retrieval of an object-in-context memory in a spontaneous novelty preference task, while sparing single item recognition memory. We also determined that 5-HT2A receptors in mPFC are required for hippocampal-mPFC interaction during retrieval of this type of memory suggesting that the mPFC controls the expression of memory traces stored in the hippocampus biasing retrieval to the most relevant one.