Establishing the causality between memory and specific neuronal ensemble

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24680042
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (A)
• Allocation Type: Partial Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Fusional basic brain science
• Research Institution: Osaka University (2014); Kyoto University (2012-2013)
• Principal Investigator: MATSUO Naoki 大阪大学, 医学(系)研究科(研究院), 准教授 (10508956)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 記憶 / マウス

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Memories are changed dynamically over the course of time and by our daily experiences. To examine whether the original memory trace remains despite the disappearance of the behavioral expression of the memory, we performed pharmacogenetic neuronal activation using transgenic mice expressing hM3Dq DREADD (designer receptor exclusively activated by designer drug) under the control of the activity-dependent c-fos gene promoter. Neuronal ensembles activated during fear-conditioned learning were tagged with hM3Dq and subsequently reactivated after extinction training. The mice exhibited significant freezing, even when the memory is no longer triggered by external conditioned stimuli. The results suggest that some of the original fear memory trace are resistant to extinction, and such residual plasticity might reflect the persistent memory trace that is sufficient to evoke fear memory recall.

Free Research Field

神経科学