The participation of NMDA receptors, PKC, and MAPK in Lymnaea memory extinction

The aerial respiratory behavior of Lymnaea can be operantly conditioned to form a long-term memory (LTM) that will persist for >24h. LTM formation is dependent on altered gene activity and new protein synthesis, with the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors, mitogen activated protein kinase (MAPK), and protein kinase C (PKC) pathways playing a critical role. LTM can also undergo extinction, whereby the original memory is temporarily masked by a new memory. Here we investigate if the formation of an extinction memory uses similar molecular pathways to those required for LTM formation. We find that the formation of the extinction memory can be blocked by inhibitors of NMDA receptors, PKC, and MAPK suggesting that extinction memory formation uses similar mechanisms to that of 'normal' memory formation.