Memory Strengthening by episodic generalization due to reconsolidation

BERON JUAN CRUZ; PEDREIRA MARIA EUGENIA; FERNÁNDEZ RODRIGO S

Conferencia; Neuromatch conference 4.0.; 2021

Consolidated memories can be reactivated into a labile state by the presentation of a reminder. The reactivation of the memory trace is followed by a process of re-stabilization known as reconsolidation. This process has been proved to strengthen the memory, but the range of this strengthening has not been delimited. Here we try to understand if the memory of elements showed in the same learning context as a target memory can also be benefited from the enhancement that comes from the reactivation and reconsolidation of the target memory alone. To do this we designed a 3 day experiment with two groups. Both were explicitly told to learn an association of faces and names on the first day and to just comment on a simple characteristic of some pictures of everyday objects that were presented between the faces. Therefore, the faces were the target memory and the objects were mere peripheral elements. On a second day each group had a different reactivation session only for the target memory. The Cue group received a reminder that triggered the reconsolidation process for the memory of the faces, whereas the other group, the Control one, received a reminder (also for the faces) that did not present a prediction error and therefore didn’t trigger the reconsolidation. On a third day both groups were tested for object recognition of the peripheral elements presented on the first day only and for the retention of the face-name association presented on both previous days. We found that the Cue group that went through the reconsolidation process did not only strengthen the memory for the target elements but also showed enhanced recognition for the peripheral elements compared to the Control group, that performed worse in both tests. In conclusion, these results indicate that the strengthening due to reconsolidation does not circumscribe to the target memory exclusively, it also spreads to peripheral elements that were part of the same learning context.