title: Creating a false memory in the hippocampus.
abstract: Memories can be unreliable. We created a false memory in mice by optogenetically manipulating memory engram-bearing cells in the hippocampus. Dentate gyrus (DG) or CA1 neurons activated by exposure to a particular context were labeled with channelrhodopsin-2. These neurons were later optically reactivated during fear conditioning in a different context. The DG experimental group showed increased freezing in the original context, in which a foot shock was never delivered. The recall of this false memory was context-specific, activated similar downstream regions engaged during natural fear memory recall, and was also capable of driving an active fear response. Our data demonstrate that it is possible to generate an internally represented and behaviorally expressed fear memory via artificial means.
authors.affiliation: RIKEN-Massachusetts Institute of Technology Center for Neural Circuit Genetics at the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, Department of Biology, MIT, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
authors.forename: Steve
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ramirez
authors.forename: Xu
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Pei-Ann
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Junghyup
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Suh
authors.forename: Michele
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pignatelli
authors.forename: Roger L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Redondo
authors.forename: Tomás J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Ryan
authors.forename: Susumu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tonegawa
mesh_terms: D000679:Amygdala / Q000502:physiology; D000818:Animals; D001244:Association; D056547:CA1 Region, Hippocampal / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D000075402:Channelrhodopsins; D003213:Conditioning, Psychological; D018891:Dentate Gyrus / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D000229:Dependovirus / Q000235:genetics; D004318:Doxycycline / Q000008:administration & dosage; D005239:Fear; D016762:Genes, fos; D008027:Light; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D008822:Mice, Transgenic; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D062308:Optogenetics
chemical_list: D000075402:Channelrhodopsins; D004318:Doxycycline