Neurobiology of learning and memory
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Neurobiol Learn Mem · Jul 2014
Chronic stress disrupts fear extinction and enhances amygdala and hippocampal Fos expression in an animal model of post-traumatic stress disorder.
Chronic stress may impose a vulnerability to develop maladaptive fear-related behaviors after a traumatic event. Whereas previous work found that chronic stress impairs the acquisition and recall of extinguished fear, it is unknown how chronic stress impacts nonassociative fear, such as in the absence of the conditioned stimulus (CS) or in a novel context. Male rats were subjected to chronic stress (STR; wire mesh restraint 6 h/d/21d) or undisturbed (CON), then tested on fear acquisition (3 tone-footshock pairings), and two extinction sessions (15 tones/session) within the same context. ⋯ Increased Fos-like expression was also observed in the central amygdala in STR-NOVEL vs. CON-NOVEL. These data demonstrate that chronic stress enhances fear learning and impairs extinction, and affects nonassociative processes as demonstrated by enhanced fear in a novel context.
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Neurobiol Learn Mem · Mar 2014
Towards understanding sex differences in visceral pain: enhanced reactivation of classically-conditioned fear in healthy women.
Sex differences in learned fear regarding aversive gastrointestinal stimuli could play a role in the female preponderance of chronic abdominal pain. In a fear conditioning model with rectal pain as unconditioned stimulus (US), we compared healthy males and females with respect to neural responses during aversive visceral learning, extinction and re-activation of fear memory (i.e., reinstatement). To do so, conditioned visual stimuli (CS(+)) were consistently paired with painful rectal distensions as US, while different visual stimuli (CS(-)) were presented without US. ⋯ In conclusion, this is the first study to support sex differences in neural processes mediating aversive visceral learning. Our finding of enhanced neural responses during reinstatement in key brain areas relevant for memory suggests enhanced reactivation of old fear memory trace in women. Sex differences in "gut memories" could play a role in the female preponderance of chronic abdominal pain.
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Neurobiol Learn Mem · Mar 2014
Voluntary exercise followed by chronic stress strikingly increases mature adult-born hippocampal neurons and prevents stress-induced deficits in 'what-when-where' memory.
We investigated whether voluntary exercise prevents the deleterious effects of chronic stress on episodic-like memory and adult hippocampal neurogenesis. After bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) administration, mice were assigned to receive standard housing, chronic intermittent restraint stress, voluntary exercise or a combination of both (stress starting on the seventh day of exercise). Twenty-four days later, mice were tested in a 'what-when-where' object recognition memory task. ⋯ Nevertheless, exercise still improved memory and counteracted the stress induced-deficits in neurogenesis and behavior. Interestingly, compared with the other three treatments, the stressed exercising animals showed a larger increase in cell survival, the maturation of new neurons and apoptosis in the dentate gyrus, with a considerable increase in the number of 24-day-old BrdU+cells that differentiated into mature neurons. The interaction between exercise and stress in enhancing the number of adult-born hippocampal neurons supports a role of exercise-induced neurogenesis in stressful conditions.
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Neurobiol Learn Mem · Mar 2014
Neuronal damage, central cholinergic dysfunction and oxidative damage correlate with cognitive deficits in rats with chronic cerebral hypoperfusion.
Chronic cerebral hypoperfusion has been identified to be a risk factor for cognitive decline in aging, vascular dementia, and Alzheimer's disease. Substantial evidence has shown that chronic cerebral hypoperfusion may cause cognitive impairment, but the underlying neurobiological mechanism is poorly understood so far. In this study, we used a rat model of chronic cerebral hypoperfusion by permanent bilateral common carotid artery occlusion (BCCAO) to investigate the alterations of neuronal damage, glial activation oxidative stress and central cholinergic dysfunction, and their causal relationship with the cognitive deficits induced by chronic cerebral hypoperfusion. ⋯ Moreover, the measures of neuronal damage and central cholinergic dysfunction were significantly correlated with the indexes of oxidative damage in rats with BCCAO. Collectively, this study provides novel evidence that neuronal damage and central cholinergic dysfunction is likely due to increased oxidative stress under the condition of chronic cerebral hypoperfusion. Furthermore, the results of the present study suggest that neuronal damage, central cholinergic dysfunction and oxidative damage in the brain following the reduction of cerebral blood flow could be involved in cognitive deficits induced by chronic cerebral hypoperfusion.
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Neurobiol Learn Mem · Feb 2014
Fear of the unexpected: hippocampus mediates novelty-induced return of extinguished fear in rats.
Several lines of evidence indicate an important role for the hippocampus in the recovery of fear memory after extinction. For example, hippocampal inactivation prevents the renewal of fear to an extinguished conditioned stimulus (CS) when it is presented outside the extinction context. Renewal of extinguished responding is accompanied by associative novelty (an unexpected occurrence of a familiar CS in a familiar place), the detection of which may require the hippocampus. ⋯ In Experiment 2, muscimol inactivation of the hippocampus reduced the external disinhibition of conditioned freezing that occurred when a novel white noise accompanied the extinguished tone CS. Collectively, these results suggest that the hippocampus mediates the return of fear when extinguished CSs are unexpected, or when unexpected stimuli accompany CS presentation. Ultimately, a violation of expectations about when, where, and with what other stimuli an extinguished CS will occur may form the basis of spontaneous recovery, renewal, and external disinhibition.