Early BDNF/c-Fos cascade in the retrosplenial cortex is required for the persistence of a long-lasting aversive memory.

KATCHE C; MEDINA JH

Congreso; 25th ISN-APSN Biennial Meeting; 2015

During the past few years there has been growing interest in the role of the cortex in memory processing. In the present work, we studied the early posttraining participation of retrosplenial cortex (RSC) in the formation and storage of a long-lasting memory, and the molecular changes that take place in this brain region during memory storage. We found an increase in c-Fos levels in the anterior part of the RSC (aRSC) after inhibitory avoidance (IA) training. Interestingly, this increase was associated with memory durability, since blocking c-Fos expression using specific antisense-oligonucleotides (ASO) impaired long-lasting retention 7 days after training without affecting memory expression 2 days after training. In addition, we showed that BDNF is one of the upstream signals for c-Fos expression required for memory persistence. We found that injection of BDNF around IA training into aRSC was sufficient to establish a persistent memory and that this effect was prevented by c-fos ASO infusion into the same structure. These findings reveal an early posttraining involvement of aRSC in the processing of a long-lasting aversive memory and also some of its key molecular components necessary for this process.