RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Attenuation of Emotional and Nonemotional Memories after their Reactivation: Role of β Adrenergic Receptors
JF The Journal of Neuroscience
JO J. Neurosci.
FD Society for Neuroscience
SP 6623
OP 6628
DO 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.19-15-06623.1999
VO 19
IS 15
A1 Przybyslawski, Jean
A1 Roullet, Pascal
A1 Sara, Susan J.
YR 1999
UL http://www.jneurosci.org/content/19/15/6623.abstract
AB A memory trace in its active state is susceptible to interference by amnesic agents, such as hypothermia and electroconvulsive shock, and by NMDA receptor antagonists, suggesting that a time-dependent consolidation process occurs each time a memory is reactivated. The role of β noradrenergic receptors in reconsolidation in rats was examined in both a positively reinforced radial maze task and a footshock-reinforced conditioned emotional response task. For the former, rats were trained over several days in a spatial reference memory task and received a single reactivation trial followed by propranolol. A temporally graded impairment was observed when propranolol treatment occurred after the memory reactivation trial. In the emotional task, memory impairing effects of propranolol were greater when the drug was administered after a reactivation trial than when administered immediately after the initial training. These results suggest that reactivation of memory triggers a β receptor-dependent cascade of intracellular events, recapitulating that which occurs during initial postacquisition consolidation, thus permitting reorganization of the existing memory as a function of new information in the retrieval environment. This remarkable lability of an active memory trace provides a new basis for pharmacotherapeutic intervention in such syndromes as Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. β adrenoreceptor antagonists may be promising pharmacological agents for attenuating debilitating memories at the time of their controlled reactivation.