Substantia nigra role in fear conditioning consolidation.
Neurobiol Learn Mem
; 87(1): 133-9, 2007 Jan.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-16978887
ABSTRACT
The substantia nigra (SN) is known to be involved in the memorization of several conditioned responses. To investigate the role of the SN in fear conditioning consolidation this neural site was subjected to fully reversible tetrodotoxin (TTX) inactivation during consolidation in adult male Wistar rats which had undergone fear training to acoustic CS and context. TTX was stereotaxically administered to different groups of rats at increasing intervals after the acquisition session. Memory was assessed as conditioned freezing duration measured during retention testing, always performed 72 and 96 h after TTX administration. In this way there was no interference with normal SN function during either acquisition or retrieval phases, so that any amnesic effect could be due only to consolidation disruption. The results show that SN functional integrity is necessary for contextual fear response consolidation up to the 24-h after-acquisition delay. On the contrary SN functional integrity was shown not to be necessary for the consolidation of acoustic CS fear responses. The present findings help to elucidate the role of the SN in memory consolidation and better define the neural circuits involved in fear memories.
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Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Aprendizagem por Associação
/
Aprendizagem da Esquiva
/
Substância Negra
/
Condicionamento Clássico
/
Memória
Limite:
Animals
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Neurobiol Learn Mem
Assunto da revista:
BIOLOGIA
/
CIENCIAS DO COMPORTAMENTO
/
NEUROLOGIA
Ano de publicação:
2007
Tipo de documento:
Article
País de afiliação:
Itália