Cognition, Behavior, and Memory
Author: Ana Belén de Landeta | email: anabdelandeta@gmail.com
Ana Belén de Landeta 1°, Anja Oelschlegel 2°, Sol Cataldo 1°, Jorge H. Medina 1°3°, Jürgen Goldschmidt 2°, Cynthia Katche 1°3°
1° Instituto de Biología Celular y Neurociencia “Prof. E. De Robertis” (IBCN), Facultad de Medicina, CONICET-UBA, Buenos Aires, Argentina
2° Leibniz-Institute for Neurobiology (LIN). Magdeburg, Germany
3° Instituto Tecnológico de Buenos Aires (ITBA). Buenos Aires, Argentina
Although object recognition (OR) is a world-wide used behavioral task, little is known about the OR memory (ORM) system composition and its dynamics. We showed that the retrosplenial cortex (RSC) is required for ORM consolidation and retrieval, yet only when the RSC is active during ORM acquisition. In this regard, we found that when the RSC is inactive during ORM acquisition a RSC-independent memory is formed, showing a compensation of the ORM system. Furthermore, we observed that brain activity differs during retrieval in animals that had the RSC active or not during OR training session (TR). Particularly, RSC activity increase during ORM retrieval in animals that had the RSC inactive during TR respect to control group. In this context, we analyzed if this increase of RSC activity could be related to a change in the ORM system. We observed that RSC inactivation before re-test produced amnesia in animals that had the RSC inactivated during TR but active during test. Therefore, we suggest that the RSC takes part of the main ORM circuit. When the RSC is inactive during acquisition there is an alternative memory circuit that forms the ORM. However, as the RSC is active during retrieval, this structure incorporates to ORM processing. This way, ORM system turns to the main and preferred RSC-dependent circuit. We propose that the ORM system is dynamic, flexible and modifies itself according to the physiological environment from the brain structures that conform its main circuit.