Memory traces compete under regimes of limited Arc protein synthesis: implications for memory interference

MARTINEZ MC; ALEN N; BALLARINI F; MONCADA D; VIOLA H

Barcelona

Congreso; FENS, Barcelona, España Julio 14-18, 2012.; 2012

Recently encoded information can be forgotten in the presence of new information, a process called ?retrograde interference?. Retrograde interference has been extensively described for more than a century and it is thought to be one of the major causes of forgetting. However little is known about its underlying mechanisms. Different approaches agree on the need of the synthesis of plasticity related proteins (PRPs) to consolidate a long-term memory.  Here, by combining two different learning tasks in rats, we demonstrate that memory traces compete for their stabilization when protein resources are limited. As a result, LTM is formed for only one of the tasks with the subsequent memory forgetting for the other one. Furthermore, we found that Arc is necessary for the consolidation of these memories and is one of the PRPs being disputed between them. In sum, these findings suggest that under conditions of reduced protein availability, a learning task interferes with the consolidation of other learning by winning over and utilizing the available PRPs.