Differential effects of cannabinoid receptor agonist on social discrimination and contextual fear in amygdala and hippocampus
Abstract
We examined whether the cannabinoid receptor agonist WIN55,212-2 (WIN; 5 µg/side) microinjected into the hippocampus or the amygdala would differentially affect memory processes in a neutral vs. an aversive task. In the aversive contextual fear task, WIN into the basolateral amygdala impaired fear acquisition/consolidation, but not retrieval. In the ventral subiculum (vSub), WIN impaired fear retrieval. In the neutral social discrimination task, WIN into the vSub impaired both acquisition/consolidation and retrieval, whereas in the medial amygdala WIN impaired acquisition. The results suggest that cannabinoid signaling differentially affects memory in a task-, region-, and memory stage-dependent manner.
Footnotes
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↵1 Corresponding author.
E-mail iakirav{at}psy.haifa.ac.il; fax 972 4 8249157.
- Received December 13, 2010.
- Accepted January 18, 2011.
- © 2011 Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press