Selective Erasure of a Fear Memory

Memories are thought to be encoded by sparsely distributed groups of neurons. However, identifying the precise neurons supporting a given memory (the memory trace) has been a long-standing challenge. We have shown previously that lateral amygdala (LA) neurons with increased cyclic adenosine monophos...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) 2009-03, Vol.323 (5920), p.1492-1496
Main Authors: Han, Jin-Hee, Kushner, Steven A, Yiu, Adelaide P, Hsiang, Hwa-Lin (Liz), Buch, Thorsten, Waisman, Ari, Bontempi, Bruno, Neve, Rachael L, Frankland, Paul W, Josselyn, Sheena A
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Amnesia - physiopathology
Amygdala - cytology
Amygdala - physiology
Animals
Apoptosis
Behavioral neuroscience
Biological and medical sciences
Biotechnology
Brain
Cell death
Conditioning (Psychology)
Cyclic AMP Response Element-Binding Protein - genetics
Cyclic AMP Response Element-Binding Protein - metabolism
Fear
Fear & phobias
Freezing
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Life Sciences
Memory
Memory - physiology
Memory disorders
Memory trace
Mental Recall - physiology
Mice
Mice, Transgenic
Neurology
Neurons
Neurons and Cognition
Research fellowships
Vertebrates: nervous system and sense organs
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Summary:Memories are thought to be encoded by sparsely distributed groups of neurons. However, identifying the precise neurons supporting a given memory (the memory trace) has been a long-standing challenge. We have shown previously that lateral amygdala (LA) neurons with increased cyclic adenosine monophosphate response element-binding protein (CREB) are preferentially activated by fear memory expression, which suggests that they are selectively recruited into the memory trace. We used an inducible diphtheria-toxin strategy to specifically ablate these neurons. Selectively deleting neurons overexpressing CREB (but not a similar portion of random LA neurons) after learning blocked expression of that fear memory. The resulting memory loss was robust and persistent, which suggests that the memory was permanently erased. These results establish a causal link between a specific neuronal subpopulation and memory expression, thereby identifying critical neurons within the memory trace.
ISSN:0036-8075
1095-9203
DOI:10.1126/science.1164139