The role of retrosplenial cortex and the molecular mechanisms involved in memory persistence

DORMAN G; KATCHE C; KRAMAR C; GONZALEZ C; SLIPCZUK L; GARAGOLI F; TOMAIUOLO M; MEDINA JH

Congreso; IIRCN: XXV Reunión Anual de la Sociedad Argentina de Investigación en Neurociencias (SAN) y XII Taller Argentino de Neurociencias (TAN).; 2011

The persistence is a key characteristic of memory storage, but little is known about the mechanisms and structures involved in maintenance of the memory trace. Although the hippocampus is crucial in the formation of new declarative memories, other brain regions probably mediate permanent storage of remote memories. It is known that the retrosplenial cortex is involved in spatial tasks and it has direct and indirect connections with the hippocampus; for this reason, we decided to investigate the role of retrosplenial cortex and the molecular mechanisms involved in memory processing. In this work, we show that inhibition of transcription in the retrosplenial cortex impairs memory formation around and a few hours later after inhibitory avoidance (IA) training. Moreover, translation is required in the retrosplenial cortex around training for memory formation and, late after training for memory persistence. In addition, long-lasting but not short-lived IA long-term memory depends on a delayed expression of c-Fos in the retrosplenial cortex. Our results support the hypothesis that recurrent rounds of consolidation-like events (i.e. transcription and translation) take place late after learning in the dorsal retrosplenial cortex to maintain memories.