Making context memories independent of the hippocampus.
We present evidence that certain learning parameters can make a memory, even a very recent one, become independent of the hippocampus. We confirm earlier findings that damage to the hippocampus causes severe retrograde amnesia for context memories, but we show that repeated learning sessions create a context memory that is not vulnerable to the damage. The findings demonstrate that memories normally dependent on the hippocampus are incrementally strengthened in other memory networks with additional learning. The latter provides a new account for patterns of hippocampal retrograde amnesia and how memories may become independent of the hippocampus.
Lehmann
Hugo
H
Psychology Department, Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada. hugolehmann@trentu.ca
Sparks
Fraser T
FT
Spanswick
Simon C
SC
Hadikin
Crystal
C
McDonald
Robert J
RJ
Sutherland
Robert J
RJ
D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000187:drug effects; D003214:Conditioning, Classical / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D004193:Discrimination Learning / Q000187:drug effects; D004597:Electroshock / Q000009:adverse effects; D018690:Excitatory Amino Acid Agonists / Q000633:toxicity; D005239:Fear / Q000502:physiology; D046352:Freezing Reaction, Cataleptic / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000293:injuries / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D016202:N-Methylaspartate / Q000633:toxicity; D051381:Rats
D018690:Excitatory Amino Acid Agonists; D016202:N-Methylaspartate