Cognition, Behavior, and Memory
Author: Mariana Imperatori | email: marianaimperatori3@gmail.com
Mariana Imperatori 1°, María Belén Zanoni 1°, Pedro Bekinschtein 1°, Noelia Weisstaub 1°
1° Laboratorio de Memoria y Cognición Molecular, Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva y Traslacional, CONICET-Fundación INECO-Universidad Favaloro
Forgetting is a ubiquitous phenomenon that is actively promoted in many species. The very act of remembering some experiences can cause forgetting of others, in both humans and rats. In rats, the retrieval of a particular memory produces the forgetting of other memories encoded in the same environment. However, the circuit and mechanisms involved are not well understood. This retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF) process is thought to be driven by inhibitory control signals from the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) that target areas where the memories are stored. In humans, intentionally suppressing memory retrieval (retrieval stopping) reduces hippocampal activity via control mechanisms mediated by the lateral prefrontal cortex. We speculate that retrieval engages mPFC to induce episodic forgetting of competing memories via fronto-hippocampal inhibitory control, with the mPFC exerting executive control over hippocampal retrieval processes. This work aims to explore the role of dCA1 during retrieval practice in RIF. Precisely, we are using an agonist of the GABAA receptor for the dCA1 to achieve a general inhibition of the structure, specifically during the phase when memories compete (retrieval practice). In summary, we will be studying how exploratory behavior in a rodent object recognition task that typically causes RIF is affected by inhibition of the dCA1.