The anterior cingulate cortex is involved in retrieval of long-term/long-lasting but not short-term memory for step-through inhibitory avoidance in rats.
It is known that the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is involved in the formation of contextual fear memory. It has been shown that the ACC is important for the retrieval of long-term contextual fear memory. In order to further examine the role of the ACC in fear memory, we investigated the effects of chemical lesion to or reversible inactivation of the ACC on the retrieval of long-term and short-term step-through inhibitory avoidance (IA) memory. Chemical lesion to the ACC by quinolinic acid severely impaired the retrieval of 15-day and 29-day memories for one-trial step-through IA. Pre-retrieval inactivation of the ACC by locally infusing muscimol, a selective GABA(A) receptor agonist, produced a severe deficit in 7-day, 4-day and 1-day IA memories, with no effect on 2-h and 6-h memories. Thus, the ACC is required for the retrieval of long-term/long-lasting IA memory, but is dispensable for short-term one.
Liu
Fang
F
Institute of Neurobiology and State Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology, Institutes of Brain Science, Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, China. bmli@fudan.edu.cn
Zheng
Xin-Ling
XL
Li
Bao-Ming
BM
D000818:Animals; D001362:Avoidance Learning / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D018755:GABA Agonists / Q000494:pharmacology; D006179:Gyrus Cinguli / Q000187:drug effects / Q000293:injuries / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D009118:Muscimol / Q000494:pharmacology; D009433:Neural Inhibition / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D017378:Quinolinic Acid / Q000633:toxicity; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D013997:Time Factors
D018755:GABA Agonists; D009118:Muscimol; D017378:Quinolinic Acid