Enhancement of long-term memory expression by a single trial during consolidation

Memory built in conjunction with a stressor is privileged: Reconsolidation-resistant memories in the crab Neohelice

The dynamics of memory processes are conserved throughout evolution, a feature based on the hypothesis of a common origin of the high-order memory centers in bilateral animals. Reconsolidation is just one example. The possibility to interfere with long-term memory expression during reconsolidation has been proposed as potentially useful in clinical application to treat traumatic memories. However, several pieces of evidence in rodents show that either robust fear memories or stressful events applied before acquisition promote reconsolidation-resistant memories, i.e., memories that are resistant to the interfering effect of drugs on memory reconsolidation. Conceivably, the generation of these reconsolidation-resistant fear memories also occurs in humans. Is the induction of reconsolidation-resistant memories part of the dynamics of memory processes conserved throughout evolution? In the semiterrestrial crab Neohelice granulata, memory reconsolidation is triggered by a short reminder without reinforcement. Here, we show that an increase in the salience of the aversive stimulus augmented the memory strength; nonetheless, the protein synthesis inhibitor cycloheximide still disrupted the reconsolidation process. However, crabs stressed by a water-deprivation episode before a strong training session built up a memory that was now reconsolidation-resistant. We tested whether these reconsolidation-resistant effects can be challenged by changing parametric conditions of memory-reminder sessions; multiple memory reactivations without reinforcement were not able to trigger the labilization-reconsolidation of this resistant memory. Overall, the present findings suggest that generation of reconsolidation-resistant memories can be another part of the dynamics of memory processes conserved throughout evolution that protects privileged information from change.

Neural correlates of expression-independent memories in the crab Neohelice

The neural correlates of memory have been usually examined considering that memory retrieval and memory expression are interchangeable concepts. However, our studies in the crab Neohelice (Chasmagnathus) granulata and in other memory models have shown that memory expression is not necessary for memory to be re-activated and become labile. In order to examine putative neural correlates of memory in the crab Neohelice, we contrast changes induced by training in both animal's behavior and neuronal responses in the medulla terminalis using in vivo Ca(2+) imaging. Disruption of long-term memory by the amnesic agents MK-801 or scopolamine (5μg/g) blocks the learning-induced changes in the Ca(2+) responses in the medulla terminalis. Conversely, treatments that lead to an unexpressed but persistent memory (weak training protocol or scopolamine 0.1μg/g) do not block these learning-induced neural changes. The present results reveal a set of changes in the neural activity induced by training that correlates with memory persistence but not with the probability of this memory to be expressed in the long-term. In addition, the study constitutes the first in vivo evidence in favor of a role of the medulla terminalis in learning and memory in crustaceans, and provides a physiological evidence indicating that memory persistence and the probability of memory to be expressed might involve separate components of memory traces.

Hippocampal NMDA receptors and the previous experience effect on memory

N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors (NMDAR) are thought to be responsible for switching synaptic activity specific patterns into long-term changes in synaptic function and structure, which would support learning and memory. Hippocampal NMDAR blockade impairs memory consolidation in rodents, while NMDAR stimulation improves it. Adult rats that explored twice an open field (OF) before a weak though overthreshold training in inhibitory avoidance (IA), expressed IA long-term memory in spite of the hippocampal administration of MK-801, which currently leads to amnesia. Those processes would involve different NMDARs. The selective blockade of hippocampal GluN2B-containing NMDAR with ifenprodil after training promoted memory in an IA task when the training was weak, suggesting that this receptor negatively modulates consolidation. In vivo, after 1h of an OF exposure-with habituation to the environment-, there was an increase in GluN1 and GluN2A subunits in the rat hippocampus, without significant changes in GluN2B. Coincidentally, in vitro, in both rat hippocampal slices and neuron cultures there was an increase in GluN2A-NMDARs surface expression at 30min; an increase in GluN1 and GluN2A levels at about 1h after LTP induction was also shown. We hypothesize that those changes in NMDAR composition could be involved in the "anti-amnesic effect" of the previous OF. Along certain time interval, an increase in GluN1 and GluN2A would lead to an increase in synaptic NMDARs, facilitating synaptic plasticity and memory; while then, an increase in GluN2A/GluN2B ratio could protect the synapse and the already established plasticity, perhaps saving the specific trace.

Memory beyond expression

The idea that memories are not invariable after the consolidation process has led to new perspectives about several mnemonic processes. In this framework, we review our studies on the modulation of memory expression during reconsolidation. We propose that during both memory consolidation and reconsolidation, neuromodulators can determine the probability of the memory trace to guide behavior, i.e. they can either increase or decrease its behavioral expressibility without affecting the potential of persistent memories to be activated and become labile. Our hypothesis is based on the findings that positive modulation of memory expression during reconsolidation occurs even if memories are behaviorally unexpressed. This review discusses the original approach taken in the studies of the crab Neohelice (Chasmagnathus) granulata, which was then successfully applied to test the hypothesis in rodent fear memory. Data presented offers a new way of thinking about both weak trainings and experimental amnesia: memory retrieval can be dissociated from memory expression. Furthermore, the strategy presented here allowed us to show in human declarative memory that the periods in which long-term memory can be activated and become labile during reconsolidation exceeds the periods in which that memory is expressed, providing direct evidence that conscious access to memory is not needed for reconsolidation. Specific controls based on the constraints of reminders to trigger reconsolidation allow us to distinguish between obliterated and unexpressed but activated long-term memories after amnesic treatments, weak trainings and forgetting. In the hypothesis discussed, memory expressibility--the outcome of experience-dependent changes in the potential to behave--is considered as a flexible and modulable attribute of long-term memories. Expression seems to be just one of the possible fates of re-activated memories.