Memory updating during reconsolidation relays on a behavioral tagging process

SCHROEDER, MATÍAS NICOLÁS; FULLIO, CAMILA L.; MONCADA, DIEGO; GRISPUN, MARTÍN

Congreso; XXXIV Reunión Anual SAN 2019; 2019

We have recently shown that the reconsolidation ofdifferent memories occurs via a behavioral tagging (BT) process. In other words,to re-stabilize a memory upon its reactivation two parallel and complementaryprocesses must occur: the setting of reconsolidation tag and the synthesis ofnew proteins (PRPs). Here, using the spatial object recognition (SOR) task inrats, we investigated how the BT process regulates the addition of newinformation to the trace.Our results show that the inhibition of the proteinkinase A (PKA) and the extracellular regulated kinases 1/2 (ERK1/2) upon memoryreactivation impaired its reconsolidation, unveiling those pathways asmechanisms related to the setting of the tag and the synthesis of PRPsrespectively. In addition, we studied the role of the dopaminergic andadrenergic systems. We observed that the β-adrenergic and theD1/D5-dopaminergic receptors of the hippocampus are specifically required toinduce the synthesis of PRPs necessary to grant the reconsolidation process andadd new information to the trace. Moreover, by combining SOR memoryreactivation with the exploration to multiple novel arenas at different timepoints, we observed that each exposure, capable of providing further PRPs,induced a better long-term memory.In summary, our results show that the BT underlies theaddition of new information to a memory trace during memory reconsolidation andthey start to unveil the mechanisms underlying the process.