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Heinbockel H, Wagner AD, Schwabe L. Post-retrieval stress impairs subsequent memory depending on hippocampal memory trace reinstatement during reactivation. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2024; 10:eadm7504. [PMID: 38691596 PMCID: PMC11062581 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adm7504] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/03/2023] [Accepted: 03/29/2024] [Indexed: 05/03/2024]
Abstract
Upon retrieval, memories can become susceptible to meaningful events, such as stress. Post-retrieval memory changes may be attributed to an alteration of the original memory trace during reactivation-dependent reconsolidation or, alternatively, to the modification of retrieval-related memory traces that impact future remembering. Hence, how post-retrieval memory changes emerge in the human brain is unknown. In a 3-day functional magnetic resonance imaging study, we show that post-retrieval stress impairs subsequent memory depending on the strength of neural reinstatement of the original memory trace during reactivation, driven by the hippocampus and its cross-talk with neocortical representation areas. Comparison of neural patterns during immediate and final memory testing further revealed that successful retrieval was linked to pattern-dissimilarity in controls, suggesting the use of a different trace, whereas stressed participants relied on the original memory representation. These representation changes were again dependent on neocortical reinstatement during reactivation. Our findings show disruptive stress effects on the consolidation of retrieval-related memory traces that support future remembering.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hendrik Heinbockel
- Department of Cognitive Psychology, Universität Hamburg, 20146 Hamburg, Germany
| | - Anthony D. Wagner
- Department of Psychology, Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute, Building 420, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
| | - Lars Schwabe
- Department of Cognitive Psychology, Universität Hamburg, 20146 Hamburg, Germany
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Merlo SA, Belluscio MA, Pedreira ME, Merlo E. Memory persistence: from fundamental mechanisms to translational opportunities. Transl Psychiatry 2024; 14:98. [PMID: 38355584 PMCID: PMC10867010 DOI: 10.1038/s41398-024-02808-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/24/2023] [Revised: 01/05/2024] [Accepted: 01/25/2024] [Indexed: 02/16/2024] Open
Abstract
Memory persistence is a double edge sword. Persistence of adaptive memories is essential for survival and even determines who we are. Neurodegenerative conditions with significant memory loss such as Alzheimer's disease, testify how defects of memory persistence have severe and irreversible effects on personality, among other symptoms. Yet, maintenance of overly strong maladaptive memories underlies highly debilitating psychiatric conditions including post-traumatic stress disorder, specific phobia, substance dependence and binge eating disorder. Here we review the neurobiological mechanisms supporting memory formation, persistence, inhibition and forgetting. We then shift the focus to how such mechanisms have been exploited to alter the persistence of laboratory-generated memories in human healthy volunteers as a proof of concept. Finally, we review the effect of behavioural and pharmacological interventions in anxiety and addiction disorder patients, highlighting key findings, gaps, and future directions for basic and translational research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Santiago Abel Merlo
- Instituto de Fisiología, Biología Molecular y Neurociencias, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas and Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Instituto de Fisiología y Biofísica Bernardo Houssay, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas and Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Laboratorio Bases Neuronales del Comportamiento, Departamento de Ciencias Fisiológicas, Facultad de Ciencias Médicas, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Mariano Andrés Belluscio
- Instituto de Fisiología y Biofísica Bernardo Houssay, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas and Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Laboratorio Bases Neuronales del Comportamiento, Departamento de Ciencias Fisiológicas, Facultad de Ciencias Médicas, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Maria Eugenia Pedreira
- Instituto de Fisiología, Biología Molecular y Neurociencias, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas and Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina
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Bui UTD, Milton AL. Making Leaps and Hitting Boundaries in Reconsolidation: Overcoming Boundary Conditions to Increase Clinical Translatability of Reconsolidation-based Therapies. Neuroscience 2023; 519:198-206. [PMID: 36933761 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2023.03.013] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/30/2022] [Revised: 03/03/2023] [Accepted: 03/11/2023] [Indexed: 03/18/2023]
Abstract
Reconsolidation results in the restabilisation, and thus persistence, of a memory made labile by retrieval, and interfering with this process is thought to enable modification or weakening of the original trace. As such, reconsolidation-blockade has been a focus of research aiming to target the maladaptive memories underlying mental health disorders, including post-traumatic stress disorder and drug addiction. Current first-line therapies are not effective for all patients, and a substantial proportion of those for whom therapies are effective later relapse. A reconsolidation-based intervention would be invaluable as an alternative treatment for these conditions. However, the translation of reconsolidation-based therapies to the clinic presents a number of challenges, with arguably the greatest being the overcoming of the boundary conditions governing the opening of the reconsolidation window. These include factors such as the age and strength of memory, and can broadly be divided into two categories: intrinsic features of the targeted memory itself, and parameters of the reactivation procedure used. With maladaptive memory characteristics inevitably varying amongst individuals, manipulation of the other limitations imposed by procedural variables have been explored to circumvent the boundary conditions on reconsolidation. Although several apparently discrepant results remain to be reconciled and these limitations yet to be truly defined, many studies have produced successful results which encouragingly demonstrate that boundary conditions may be overcome using various proposed strategies to enable translation of a reconsolidation-based intervention to clinical use.
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Affiliation(s)
- Uyen T D Bui
- Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, UK
| | - Amy L Milton
- Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, UK.
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Milton AL, Das RK, Merlo E. The challenge of memory destabilisation: From prediction error to prior expectations and biomarkers. Brain Res Bull 2023; 194:100-104. [PMID: 36708846 DOI: 10.1016/j.brainresbull.2023.01.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/30/2022] [Revised: 12/22/2022] [Accepted: 01/24/2023] [Indexed: 01/26/2023]
Abstract
The re-ignition of memory reconsolidation research sparked by Karim Nader in the early 2000s led to great excitement that 'reconsolidation-based' interventions might be developed for mental health disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder and substance use disorder. Two decades on, it is clear that reconsolidation-based interventions have been more challenging to translate to the clinic than initially thought. We argue that this challenge could be addressed with a better understanding of how prior expectations interact with information presented in a putative memory reactivation / cue reminder session, and through the identification of non-invasive biomarkers for memory destabilisation that would allow reminder sessions to be 'tuned' to enhance memory lability in an ad hoc manner.
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Affiliation(s)
- Amy L Milton
- Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Downing Site, Cambridge, UK.
| | - Ravi K Das
- Clinical Psychopharmacology Unit, University College London, London, UK
| | - Emiliano Merlo
- School of Psychology, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK
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Wang SH. Lose the fear and boost the everyday memory through memory destabilisation and reconsolidation. Brain Res Bull 2022; 190:134-139. [DOI: 10.1016/j.brainresbull.2022.09.019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/03/2022] [Revised: 09/12/2022] [Accepted: 09/24/2022] [Indexed: 11/02/2022]
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Cox WR, Faliagkas L, Besseling A, van der Loo RJ, Spijker S, Kindt M, Rao-Ruiz P. Interfering With Contextual Fear Memories by Post-reactivation Administration of Propranolol in Mice: A Series of Null Findings. Front Behav Neurosci 2022; 16:893572. [PMID: 35832291 PMCID: PMC9272000 DOI: 10.3389/fnbeh.2022.893572] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/10/2022] [Accepted: 05/18/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Post-reactivation amnesia of contextual fear memories by blockade of noradrenergic signaling has been shown to have limited replicability in rodents. This is usually attributed to several boundary conditions that gate the destabilization of memory during its retrieval. How these boundary conditions can be overcome, and what neural mechanisms underlie post-reactivation changes in contextual fear memories remain largely unknown. Here, we report a series of experiments in a contextual fear-conditioning paradigm in mice, that were aimed at solving these issues. We first attempted to obtain a training paradigm that would consistently result in contextual fear memory that could be destabilized upon reactivation, enabling post-retrieval amnesia by the administration of propranolol. Unexpectedly, our attempts were unsuccessful to this end. Specifically, over a series of experiments in which we varied different parameters of the fear acquisition procedure, at best small and inconsistent effects were observed. Additionally, we found that propranolol did not alter retrieval-induced neural activity, as measured by the number of c-Fos+ cells in the hippocampal dentate gyrus. To determine whether propranolol was perhaps ineffective in interfering with reactivated contextual fear memories, we also included anisomycin (i.e., a potent and well-known amnesic drug) in several experiments, and measures of synaptic glutamate receptor subunit GluA2 (i.e., a marker of memory destabilization). No post-retrieval amnesia by anisomycin and no altered GluA2 expression by reactivation was observed, suggesting that the memories did not undergo destabilization. The null findings are surprising, given that the training paradigms we implemented were previously shown to result in memories that could be modified upon reactivation. Together, our observations illustrate the elusive nature of reactivation-dependent changes in non-human fear memory.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wouter R. Cox
- Department of Psychology, Clinical Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
| | - Leonidas Faliagkas
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Neurobiology, Center for Neurogenomics and Cognitive Research, Amsterdam Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
| | - Amber Besseling
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Neurobiology, Center for Neurogenomics and Cognitive Research, Amsterdam Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
| | - Rolinka J. van der Loo
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Neurobiology, Center for Neurogenomics and Cognitive Research, Amsterdam Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
| | - Sabine Spijker
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Neurobiology, Center for Neurogenomics and Cognitive Research, Amsterdam Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
| | - Merel Kindt
- Department of Psychology, Clinical Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
| | - Priyanka Rao-Ruiz
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Neurobiology, Center for Neurogenomics and Cognitive Research, Amsterdam Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
- *Correspondence: Priyanka Rao-Ruiz
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