James Stafford

Behavioral Neuroscience

James Stafford, K. M. Lattal

The Persistence of Memory Following its disruption

There are numerous studies showing that memories are easily disrupted

during their acquisition and subsequent consolidation.  There is

further evidence that when memories are reactivated they are returned

to a state where they need to be “reconsolidated” making them once

again vulnerable to disruption.  This series of studies aims to

investigates the persistence of consolidation and reconsolidation

deficits.  By bringing performance to similar levels following memory

disruption during both the consolidation and reconsolidation phases we

can determine the relative persistence of these deficits.  If

consolidation and reconsolidation reflect similar processes, the

persistence of these deficits also should be similar.  Mice received

the protein synthesis inhibitor anisomycin or saline immediately after

context conditioning (context-shock pairings) or after retrieval of

context conditioning (context-no shock).  Protein synthesis has been

shown to be required for memory consolidation, thus anisomycin should

disrupt the consolidation of the memory in the group undergoing

initial context conditioning, as well as the “reconsolidation” of the

memory in the group undergoing retrieval of context conditioning.  We

were able to replicate the consolidation deficits that previous

studies have shown following protein synthesis inhibition however were

unable to replicate the reconsolidation deficits that others have

found.  Currently we are attempting to determine the conditions that

lead to a reconsolidation deficit so that we can investigate the

persistence of such deficits.