title: The recognition of a novel-object in a novel context leads to hippocampal and parahippocampal c-Fos involvement.
abstract: Contextual memory implies recognition based on the association between past and present events experienced. It is important for daily functioning and dysfunctional in many neuropsychological disturbances. The network related to this memory is still open for debate, even though it has been associated with medial temporal lobe regions, including the perirhinal, entorhinal and temporal association cortices, as well as the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex. Our work tries to elucidate whether a change in the context, such as differences in the amount of stimuli presented on the walls and floor of an open field during object exploration, affects the recognition of an object that has been experienced before, and whether this context manipulation could be linked to changes in c-Fos expression. For this purpose, we used a one-trial novel-object recognition task. The animals were divided into two different experimental conditions; in the OR-NORMAL group, the sample and probe test were performed in the same context. However, in the OR-CONTEXT group, the probe test was performed in a different context. Our results showed that the OR-NORMAL group presented a greater exploration of objects than the OR-CONTEXT group. However, both groups presented significant exploration of the novel object. To label the brain regions involved in novel-object recognition under these conditions, we marked the expression of c-Fos protein. Results suggest that a neural circuit that includes the hippocampus, entorhinal and temporal association cortices is involved in the recognition of the novel-object in a novel context.
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EB, UK; INEUROPA, Instituto de Neurociencias del Principado de Asturias, Spain. Electronic address: na423@cam.ac.uk.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Arias
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio de Neurociencias, Departamento de Psicología, Universidad de Oviedo, Plaza Feijoo s/n, 33003 Oviedo, Spain; INEUROPA, Instituto de Neurociencias del Principado de Asturias, Spain.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Méndez
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio de Neurociencias, Departamento de Psicología, Universidad de Oviedo, Plaza Feijoo s/n, 33003 Oviedo, Spain; INEUROPA, Instituto de Neurociencias del Principado de Asturias, Spain.
authors.forename: J L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Arias
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology; D018728:Entorhinal Cortex / Q000502:physiology; D005106:Exploratory Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000502:physiology; D016760:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-fos / Q000502:physiology*; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000502:physiology*; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000502:physiology; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D016760:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-fos
keywords: C-fos; Context; Entorhinal cortex; Hippocampus; Novel object-place recognition task; Temporal association cortex