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Related Experiment Video

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Ex Vivo Optogenetic Dissection of Fear Circuits in Brain Slices
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Convergent Coding of Recent and Remote Fear Memory in the Basolateral Amygdala.

Jianfeng Liu1, Michael S Totty1, Laila Melissari1

  • 1Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences and Institute for Neuroscience, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas.

Biological Psychiatry
|March 5, 2022
PubMed
Summary

The basolateral amygdala (BLA) is crucial for storing both recent and remote fear memories. This suggests the BLA acts as a long-term storage site for emotional memories.

Keywords:
AmygdalaBehaviorFreezingMemoryPavlovian conditioningRatRetrieval

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Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Behavioral Neuroscience
  • Memory Research

Background:

  • The basolateral amygdala (BLA) is recognized for its role in fear memory encoding and retrieval in rodents and humans.
  • Emerging evidence questions the BLA's long-term involvement, suggesting fear memories may become independent over time.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To systematically investigate the BLA's role in retrieving recent (1 day) and remote (2 weeks) fear memories.
  • To compare the BLA's neural activity and functional involvement in recent versus remote fear memory retrieval within the same subjects.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized optogenetics, electrophysiology, and calcium imaging in Long-Evans rats.
  • Employed a within-subjects design to compare recent and remote fear memory retrieval.
  • Measured freezing behavior as the primary index of learned fear.

Main Results:

  • BLA c-Fos expression was comparable for recent and remote fear memory retrieval.
  • Single BLA neurons showed increased firing rates to conditioned stimuli for both recent and remote memories.
  • Optogenetic inhibition of BLA principal neurons impaired freezing for both recent and remote memories, with no sex differences observed.

Conclusions:

  • BLA neurons encode both recent and remote fear memories, indicating significant overlap in neural representation.
  • These findings support the BLA as a long-term storage site for emotional memories.
  • The BLA's sustained role may contribute to the generalization of fear memories across time and space.