Serotonin receptors 2A in the rat mPFC are necessary for Retrieval Induced Forgetting

ZANONI SAAD MARIA BELEN; BEKINSCHTEIN, P.; WEISSTAUB, NOELIA V.

Buenos Aires

Congreso; XXXVI Reunion Anual; 2021

SAN

Over the past several decades, neurobiological research on memory has been focused on the mechanismsunderlying memory storage. Nevertheless, the study of forgetting and, specifically, active and selectiveforgetting has been increased since Anderson et al. showed in 1994 that the retrieval of certain memoriescould cause the forgetting of related, but not explicitly evoked information by a mechanism called retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF). Humans and rats share the fundamental features of RIF: competition-dependent, cue-independent, and reliant on the prefrontal cortex. This work aims to explore if and how the serotonergic systemparticipates in RIF. Precisely, we first used an antagonist of the serotonin receptor 2A (5-HT2AR), then specificinhibitors for members of the βarr2 signaling pathway, and finally an agonist of the 5-HT2AR in the medialprefrontal cortex. We found that a 5-HT2AR antagonist and a PI3K inhibitor, which is part of the Barr2 pathwayimpaired RIF but did not affect memory in other ways. Moreover, injection of a 5-HT2AR agonist promoted RIFin animals that would not normally forget. In summary, 5-HT2AR signaling in the rat prefrontal cortex isnecessary for the occurrence of RIF and is partially reliant on the activation of the Barr2 pathway