Influence of cued-fear conditioning and its impairment on NREM sleep.

Many studies suggest that fear conditioning influences sleep. It is, however, not known if the changes in sleep architecture after fear conditioning are essentially associated with the consolidation of fearful memory or with fear itself. Here, we have observed that within sleep, NREM sleep consistently remained augmented after the consolidation of cued fear-conditioned memory. But a similar change did not occur after impairing memory consolidation by blocking new protein synthesis and glutamate transmission between glial-neuronal loop in the lateral amygdala (LA). Anisomycin (a protein synthesis inhibitor) and DL-α-amino-adipic acid (DL- α -AA) (a glial glutamine synthetase enzyme inhibitor) were microinjected into the LA soon after cued fear-conditioning to induce memory impairment. On the post-conditioning day, animals in both the groups exhibited significantly less freezing. In memory-consolidated groups (vehicle groups), NREM sleep significantly increased during 2nd to 5th hours after training compared to their baseline days. However, in memory impaired groups (anisomycin and DL- α -AA microinjected groups), similar changes were not observed. Our results thus suggest that changes in sleep architecture after cued fear-conditioning are indeed a consolidation dependent event.

The effect of glial glutamine synthetase inhibition on recognition and temporal memories in the rat.

The glutamate neurotransmitter is intrinsically involved in learning and memory. Glial glutamine synthetase enzyme synthesizes glutamine, which helps maintain the optimal neuronal glutamate level. However, the role of glutamine synthetase in learning and memory remains unclear. Using associative trace learning task, we investigated the effects of methionine sulfoximine (MSO) (glutamine synthetase inhibitor) on recognition and temporal memories. MSO and vehicle were injected (i.p.) three hours before training in separate groups of male Wistar rats (n=11). Animals were trained to obtain fruit juice after following a set of sequential events. Initially, house-light was presented for 15s followed by 5s trace interval. Thereafter, juice was given for 20s followed by 20s inter-presentation interval. A total of 75 presentations were made over five sessions during the training and testing periods. The average number of head entries to obtain juice per session and during individual phases at different time intervals was accounted as an outcome measure of recognition and temporal memories. The total head entries in MSO and vehicle treated animals were comparable on training and testing days. However, it was 174.90% (p=0.08), 270.61% (p<0.05), 143.20% (p<0.05) more on training day and 270.33% (p<0.05), 157.94% (p<0.05), 170.42% (p<0.05) more on testing day, during the house-light, trace-interval and inter-presentation interval phases in MSO animals. Glutamine synthetase inhibition did not induce recognition memory deficit, while temporal memory was altered, suggesting that glutamine synthetase modulates some aspects of mnemonic processes.

Sleep deprivation impairs consolidation of cued fear memory in rats.

Post-learning sleep facilitates negative memory consolidation and also helps preserve it over several years. It is believed, therefore, that sleep deprivation may help prevent consolidation of fearful memory. Its effect, however, on consolidation of negative/frightening memories is not known. Cued fear-conditioning (CuFC) is a widely used model to understand the neural basis of negative memory associated with anxiety disorders. In this study, we first determined the suitable circadian timing for consolidation of CuFC memory and changes in sleep architecture after CuFC. Thereafter, we studied the effect of sleep deprivation on CuFC memory consolidation. Three sets of experiments were performed in male Wistar rat (n=51). In experiment-I, animals were conditioned to cued-fear by presenting ten tone-shock paired stimuli during lights-on (7 AM) (n=9) and lights-off (7 PM) (n=9) periods. In experiment-II, animals were prepared for polysomnographic recording (n=8) and changes in sleep architecture after CuFC was determined. Further in experiment-III, animals were cued fear-conditioned during the lights-off period and were randomly divided into four groups: Sleep-Deprived (SD) (n=9), Non-Sleep Deprived (NSD) (n=9), Stress Control (SC) (n=9) and Tone Control (n=7). Percent freezing amount, a hallmark of fear, was compared statistically in these groups. Rats trained during the lights-off period exhibited significantly more freezing compared to lights-on period. In CuFC trained animals, total sleep amount did not change, however, REM sleep decreased significantly. Further, out of total sleep time, animals spent proportionately more time in NREM sleep. Nevertheless, SD animals exhibited significantly less freezing compared to NSD and SC groups. These data suggest that sleep plays an important role in the consolidation of cued fear-conditioned memory.