Identification of molecules and neurons which regulate CS-US association during fear conditioning

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24680034
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (A)
• Allocation Type: Partial Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Neuroscience in general
• Research Institution: University of Toyama
• Principal Investigator: SUZUKI AKINOBU 富山大学, 医学薬学研究部(医学), 助教 (40424684)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: Memory / Parietal association / CS-US association / Optogenetics

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In the usual contextual fear conditioning, the animals have two types of learning [(1) learning the context (CS) and, (2) learning the association between the context (CS) and the shock (US)]. Because these types of learning co-occur during conditioning, it is difficult to identify brain regions required for CS-US association.
In this study, I performed Arc CatFISH method to detect brain regions required for the CS-US association and found that parietal association cortex (PtA) responded to CS-US signals. To test whether PtA regulates CS-US association at behavioral level, I established new behavioral paradigms to measure CS, US, and CS-US independently. By performing this behavioral paradigm with injection of sodium channel blocker lidocaine, I found that PtA regulates CS-US association. Furthermore I found that, by optogenetics technique, manipulating the PtA activity is capable of generating an artificial CS-US associative memory.

Free Research Field

neuroscience