Social interaction-induced fear memory reduction: exploring the influence of dopamine and oxytocin receptors on memory updating

Autor: Angel David Arellano Perez, Aline Sartori Kautzmann, Lucas de Oliveira Alvares
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2024
Předmět:
Zdroj: Translational Psychiatry, Vol 14, Iss 1, Pp 1-10 (2024)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 2158-3188
DOI: 10.1038/s41398-024-02955-3
Popis: Abstract It has been well established that a consolidated memory can be updated during the plastic state induced by reactivation. This updating process opens the possibility to modify maladaptive memory. In the present study, we evaluated whether fear memory could be updated to less-aversive level by incorporating hedonic information during reactivation. Thus, male rats were fear conditioned and, during retrieval, a female was presented as a social rewarding stimulus. We found that memory reactivation with a female (but not a male) reduces fear expression within-session and in the test, without presenting reinstatement or spontaneous recovery. Interestingly, this intervention impaired extinction. Finally, we demonstrated that this emotional remodeling to eliminate fear expression requires the activation of dopamine and oxytocin receptors during retrieval. Hence, these results shed new lights on the memory updating process and suggests that the exposure to natural rewarding information such as a female during retrieval reduces a previously consolidated fear memory.
Databáze: Directory of Open Access Journals