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The Journal of Neuroscience, March 18, 2009, 29(11):3387-3394; doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.5619-08.2009

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Behavioral/Systems/Cognitive
Segregated Populations of Hippocampal Principal CA1 Neurons Mediating Conditioning and Extinction of Contextual Fear

Natalie C. Tronson,¹ Christina Schrick,¹ Yomayra F. Guzman,¹ Kyu Hwan Huh,¹ Deepak P. Srivastava,² Peter Penzes,² Anita L. Guedea,¹ Can Gao,¹ and Jelena Radulovic¹

¹Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, The Asher Center for the Study and Treatment of Depressive Disorders, and ²Department of Physiology, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois 60611

Correspondence should be addressed to Jelena Radulovic, Associate Professor and Dunbar Scholar, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, The Asher Center, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, 303 East Chicago Avenue, Ward 9-221, Chicago, IL 60611-3008. Email: j-radulovic{at}northwestern.edu

Learning processes mediating conditioning and extinction of contextual fear require activation of several key signaling pathways in the hippocampus. Principal hippocampal CA1 neurons respond to fear conditioning by a coordinated activation of multiple protein kinases and immediate early genes, such as cFos, enabling rapid and lasting consolidation of contextual fear memory. The extracellular signal-regulated kinase (Erk) additionally acts as a central mediator of fear extinction. It is not known however, whether these molecular events take place in overlapping or nonoverlapping neuronal populations. By using mouse models of conditioning and extinction of fear, we set out to determine the time course of cFos and Erk activity, their cellular overlap, and regulation by afferent cholinergic input from the medial septum. Analyses of cFos⁺ and pErk⁺ cells by immunofluorescence revealed predominant nuclear activation of either protein during conditioning and extinction of fear, respectively. Transgenic cFos-LacZ mice were further used to label in vivo Fos⁺ hippocampal cells during conditioning followed by pErk immunostaining after extinction. The results showed that these signaling molecules were activated in segregated populations of hippocampal principal neurons. Furthermore, immunotoxin-induced lesions of medial septal neurons, providing cholinergic input into the hippocampus, selectively abolished Erk activation and extinction of fear without affecting cFos responses and conditioning. These results demonstrate that extinction mechanisms based on Erk signaling involve a specific population of CA1 principal neurons distinctively regulated by afferent cholinergic input from the medial septum.

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Received Nov. 24, 2008; revised Jan. 27, 2009; accepted Jan. 27, 2009.

Correspondence should be addressed to Jelena Radulovic, Associate Professor and Dunbar Scholar, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, The Asher Center, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, 303 East Chicago Avenue, Ward 9-221, Chicago, IL 60611-3008. Email: j-radulovic{at}northwestern.edu

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