[P1-200]: THE ROLE OF THE DORSAL HIPPOCAMPUS AND MEDIAL PREFRONTAL CORTEX IN ESTRADIOL-MEDIATED ENHANCEMENT OF MEMORY FORMATION

To survive in an ever-changing environment, animals must detect and learn salient information. The anterior insular cortex (aIC) and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) are heavily implicated in salience and novelty processing, and specifically, the processing of taste sensory information. Here, we examined the role of aIC-mPFC reciprocal connectivity in novel taste neophobia and memory formation, in mice. Using pERK and neuronal intrinsic properties as markers for neuronal activation, and retrograde AAV (rAAV) constructs for connectivity, we demonstrate a correlation between aIC-mPFC activity and novel taste experience. Furthermore, by expressing inhibitory chemogenetic receptors in these projections, we show that aIC-to-mPFC activity is necessary for both taste neophobia and its attenuation. However, activity within mPFC-to-aIC projections is essential only for the neophobic reaction but not for the learning process. These results provide an insight into the cortical circuitry needed to detect, react to- and learn salient stimuli, a process critically involved in psychiatric disorders.

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Retroactive interference of object-in-context long-term memory: Role of dorsal hippocampus and medial prefrontal cortex

Hippocampus ◽

10.1002/hipo.22328 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 24 (12) ◽

pp. 1482-1492 ◽

Cited By ~ 23

Author(s):

María Cecilia Martínez ◽

María Eugenia Villar ◽

Fabricio Ballarini ◽

Haydée Viola

Keyword(s):

Prefrontal Cortex ◽

Medial Prefrontal Cortex ◽

Retroactive Interference ◽

Dorsal Hippocampus ◽

Long Term Memory ◽

Term Memory

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The Medial Prefrontal Cortex and Fear Memory: Dynamics, Connectivity, and Engrams

International Journal of Molecular Sciences ◽

10.3390/ijms222212113 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 22 (22) ◽

pp. 12113

Author(s):

Lucie Dixsaut ◽

Johannes Gräff

Keyword(s):

Prefrontal Cortex ◽

Medial Prefrontal Cortex ◽

Memory Formation ◽

Memory Storage ◽

Long Term Memory ◽

Brain Areas ◽

Long Term Storage ◽

And Storage

It is becoming increasingly apparent that long-term memory formation relies on a distributed network of brain areas. While the hippocampus has been at the center of attention for decades, it is now clear that other regions, in particular the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), are taking an active part as well. Recent evidence suggests that the mPFC—traditionally implicated in the long-term storage of memories—is already critical for the early phases of memory formation such as encoding. In this review, we summarize these findings, relate them to the functional importance of the mPFC connectivity, and discuss the role of the mPFC during memory consolidation with respect to the different theories of memory storage. Owing to its high functional connectivity to other brain areas subserving memory formation and storage, the mPFC emerges as a central hub across the lifetime of a memory, although much still remains to be discovered.

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Insula to mPFC reciprocal connectivity differentially underlies novel taste neophobic response and learning

eLife ◽

10.7554/elife.66686 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 ◽

Author(s):

Haneen Kayyal ◽

Sailendrakumar Kolatt Chandran ◽

Adonis Yiannakas ◽

Nathaniel Gould ◽

Mohammad Khamaisy ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Prefrontal Cortex ◽

Medial Prefrontal Cortex ◽

Sensory Information ◽

Insular Cortex ◽

Memory Formation ◽

Intrinsic Properties ◽

Insight Into ◽

Taste Experience ◽

Neophobic Response

To survive in an ever-changing environment, animals must detect and learn salient information. The anterior insular cortex (aIC) and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) are heavily implicated in salience and novelty processing, and specifically, the processing of taste sensory information. Here, we examined the role of aIC-mPFC reciprocal connectivity in novel taste neophobia and memory formation, in mice. Using pERK and neuronal intrinsic properties as markers for neuronal activation, and retrograde AAV (rAAV) constructs for connectivity, we demonstrate a correlation between aIC-mPFC activity and novel taste experience. Furthermore, by expressing inhibitory chemogenetic receptors in these projections, we show that aIC-to-mPFC activity is necessary for both taste neophobia and its attenuation. However, activity within mPFC-to-aIC projections is essential only for the neophobic reaction but not for the learning process. These results provide an insight into the cortical circuitry needed to detect, react to- and learn salient stimuli, a process critically involved in psychiatric disorders.

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Modulation of Memory Formation by Stimulus Content: Specific Role of the Medial Prefrontal Cortex in the Successful Encoding of Social Pictures

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1162/jocn.2007.19.2.351 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 19 (2) ◽

pp. 351-362 ◽

Cited By ~ 41

Author(s):

Philippe-Olivier Harvey ◽

Philippe Fossati ◽

Martin Lepage

Keyword(s):

Prefrontal Cortex ◽

Medial Prefrontal Cortex ◽

Brain Activity ◽

Imaging Study ◽

Memory Formation ◽

Analytical Strategy ◽

Stimulus Content ◽

Variable Contribution ◽

The Brain

It is unclear whether the involvement of the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) during encoding is restricted to the evaluative processing of to-be-encoded stimuli or if it is instead actively engaged during memory formation. The difficulty of assessing the contribution of the mPFC to encoding based on previous neuroimaging studies partly arises from the use of several types of stimuli, such as emotional or social ones. These different types of stimulus content could differently modulate mPFC activity during memory formation and thus partly explain the variable contribution of this region to encoding. Using emotional/neutral and social/nonsocial pictures, we conducted an event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging study using a subsequent memory paradigm as the main analytical strategy. We observed that the brain activity in the dorsal and orbital mPFC is significantly and specifically predictive of the successful encoding of social compared with nonsocial pictures. In contrast, the activity in the amygdala specifically predicts the successful encoding of emotional compared with neutral pictures. The modulation of the mPFC by social information in a memory encoding context could be associated with the initiation of self-referential processes whose contribution is to enhance memory formation.

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