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Bidirectional switch of the valence associated with a hippocampal contextual memory engram

Author(s)
Redondo, Roger L.; Kim, Joshua; Liu, Xu; Tonegawa, Susumu; Arons, Autumn; Ramirez Moreno, Steve; ... Show more Show less
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Abstract
The valence of memories is malleable because of their intrinsic reconstructive property. This property of memory has been used clinically to treat maladaptive behaviours. However, the neuronal mechanisms and brain circuits that enable the switching of the valence of memories remain largely unknown. Here we investigated these mechanisms by applying the recently developed memory engram cell- manipulation technique. We labelled with channelrhodopsin-2 (ChR2) a population of cells in either the dorsal dentate gyrus (DG) of the hippocampus or the basolateral complex of the amygdala (BLA) that were specifically activated during contextual fear or reward conditioning. Both groups of fear-conditioned mice displayed aversive light-dependent responses in an optogenetic place avoidance test, whereas both DG- and BLA-labelled mice that underwent reward conditioning exhibited an appetitive response in an optogenetic place preference test. Next, in an attempt to reverse the valence of memory within a subject, mice whose DG or BLA engram had initially been labelled by contextual fear or reward conditioning were subjected to a second conditioning of the opposite valence while their original DG or BLA engram was reactivated by blue light. Subsequent optogenetic place avoidance and preference tests revealed that although the DG-engram group displayed a response indicating a switch of the memory valence, the BLA-engram group did not. This switch was also evident at the cellular level by a change in functional connectivity between DG engram-bearing cells and BLA engram-bearing cells. Thus, we found that in the DG, the neurons carrying the memory engram of a given neutral context have plasticity such that the valence of a conditioned response evoked by their reactivation can be reversed by re-associating this contextual memory engram with a new unconditioned stimulus of an opposite valence. Our present work provides new insight into the functional neural circuits underlying the malleability of emotional memory.
Date issued
2014-08
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/96823
Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Biology; Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences; Picower Institute for Learning and Memory; RIKEN-MIT Center for Neural Circuit Genetics
Journal
Nature
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
Citation
Redondo, Roger L., Joshua Kim, Autumn L. Arons, Steve Ramirez, Xu Liu, and Susumu Tonegawa. “Bidirectional Switch of the Valence Associated with a Hippocampal Contextual Memory Engram.” Nature 513, no. 7518 (August 27, 2014): 426–430.
Version: Author's final manuscript
ISSN
0028-0836
1476-4687

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