Memory reconsolidation and behavioral tagging

MONCADA, DIEGO

MEISDORF

Workshop; What makes synapses plastic? Plasticity mechanisms and failures revisited.; 2019

LIN

Prevailing theories propose that memories are encoded through protein synthesis-dependent physical changes at neuronal level. Moreover, retrieved memories may become labile and through a reconsolidation process be updated and persist. However, despite that in daily life remembering rarely occurs disassociated of other experiences, little is known about the processes ruling such interaction and therefore the fate of memory reconsolidation. Here we show that memory-retrieving events set a tag, which enables the reconsolidation of memory after binding proteins provided by the original or a different, adjacent experience. We describe the specific temporal window during which this association is effective and identify the PKA and the ERK 1/2 pathways as the mechanisms related to the setting of the reconsolidation tag and the synthesis of proteins, respectively. In summary, our results show that memory reconsolidation befalls through a ?behavioral tagging? process, which appears as a common phenomenon for different memory forms. They represent a significant advance in understanding the fortune of memories reconsolidated adjacent to other events and provide a novel tool for designing non-invasive strategies to attenuate (pathological/traumatic) or improve (education-related) memories.