Looking for neural correlates of a reconsolidated declarative memory An fMRI study

LUZ BAVASSI; C FORCATO; RODRIGO FERNANDEZ; GABRIELA DEPINO; M.E. PEDREIRA; MIRTA F VILLARREAL*

Buenos Aires

Congreso; II FALAN CONGRESS; 2016

Soc Arg de Inv en Neurociencias

The experience shows that memories are dynamic rather than static. The presentation of an specific reminder can destabilize a consolidated memory, becoming labile and vulnerable to amnesic agents. This labilization process followed by a re-stabilization phase is known as reconsolidation. The reconsolidation process is key to modify old memories, it allows to update or strengthen the original content. Moreover, a reconsolidated memory is more persistent than a retrained one. So, going through this process leaves a footprint on the mnemonic trace, probably evidenced in the evocation. We hypothesize that the evocation of a memory that has crossed the labilization-reconsolidation process requires less effort than a memory that has only been trained. In this line, we developed a declarative task that included three reminders conditions (the first trigger reconsolidation process, other than only rentrained the original memory and a no reminder condition). We acquired the hemodynamical response during the evaluation session and performed a connectivity analysis. Our results demonstrated that the retrained condition has a higher level of activity with a bigger network than the others conditions. Besides, the evocation of the reconsolidated memory has the minimum mean shortest path. This findings indicates that the evocation of a memory that went through the labilization-reconsolidation process require less energy consumption meaning an optimal work.