Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Volume 119, Issue 22, Pages -Publisher
NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2203680119
Keywords
basolateral amygdala; norepinephrine; emotional arousal; insular cortex; salience network
Categories
Funding
- Dutch Research Council Open Research Area (the Netherlands) [464.18.110]
- Ministry of Health (Italy) [RF-2019-12369567]
- China Scholarship Council
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Noradrenergic activation of the basolateral amygdala influences recognition memory by suppressing activity in the anterior insular cortex. This finding sheds light on the broader dynamics of the brain network involved in emotional regulation of memory.
Noradrenergic activation of the basolateral amygdala (BLA) by emotional arousal enhances different forms of recognition memory via functional interactions with the insular cortex (IC). Human neuroimaging studies have revealed that the anterior IC (aIC), as part of the salience network, is dynamically regulated during arousing situations. Emotional stimulation first rapidly increases aIC activity but suppresses it in a delayed fashion. Here, we investigated in male Sprague-Dawley rats whether the BLA influence on recognition memory is associated with an increase or suppression of aIC activity during the postlearning consolidation period. We first employed anterograde and retrograde viral tracing and found that the BLA sends dense monosynaptic projections to the aIC. Memory-enhancing norepinephrine administration into the BLA following an object training experience suppressed aIC activity 1 h later, as determined by a reduced expression of the phosphorylated form of the transcription factor cAMP response elementbinding (pCREB) protein and neuronal activity marker c-Fos. In contrast, the number of perisomatic gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA)ergic inhibitory synapses per pCREB-positive neuron was significantly increased, suggesting a dynamic up-regulation of GABAergic tone. In support of this possibility, pharmacological inhibition of aIC activity with a GABAergic agonist during consolidation enhanced object recognition memory. Norepinephrine administration into the BLA did not affect neuronal activity within the posterior IC, which receives sparse innervation from the BLA. The evidence that noradrenergic activation of the BLA enhances the consolidation of object recognition memory via a mechanism involving a suppression of aIC activity provides insight into the broader brain network dynamics underlying emotional regulation of memory.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available