Author:

Keywords:

post-reactivation amensia, reconsolidation, memory generalization, midazolam, prediction error, Social Sciences, Psychology, Experimental, Psychology, post-retrieval amnesia, FEAR MEMORY, PREDICTION ERROR, CONTEXTUAL CONTROL, EXTINCTION PROCEDURE, RETROGRADE-AMNESIA, RECONSOLIDATION, AMYGDALA, RETURN, DESTABILIZATION, CONSOLIDATION, Amnesia, Animals, Fear, Generalization, Psychological, Hypnotics and Sedatives, Male, Memory, Memory Consolidation, Midazolam, Rats, Rats, Wistar, 1701 Psychology, 1702 Cognitive Sciences, Experimental Psychology, 52 Psychology

Abstract:

Selective amnesia for previously established memories can be induced by administering drugs that impair protein synthesis shortly after memory reactivation. Competing theoretical accounts attribute this selective post-retrieval amnesia to drug-induced engram degradation (reconsolidation blockade) or to incorporation of sensory features of the reactivation experience into the memory representation, hampering later retrieval in a drug-free state (memory integration). Here we present evidence that critically challenges both accounts. In contextual fear conditioning in rats, we find that amnesia induced by administration of midazolam (MDZ) after reexposure to the training context A generalizes readily to a similar context B. Amnesia is also observed when animals are exposed to the similar context B prior to MDZ administration and later tested for fear to context B but recovers when instead testing for fear to the original training context A or an equally similar but novel context C. Next to their theoretical implications for the nature of forgetting, our findings raise important questions about the viability of reconsolidation-based interventions for the treatment of emotional disorders.