title: A role for the interoceptive insular cortex in the consolidation of learned fear.
abstract: A growing body of evidence suggests that learned fear may be related to the function of the interoceptive insular cortex. Using an auditory fear conditioning paradigm in rats, we show that the inactivation of the posterior insular cortex (pIC), the target of the interoceptive thalamus, prior to training produced a marked reduction in fear expression tested 24h later. Accordingly, post-training anisomycin infused immediately, but not 6h after, also reduced fear expression tested the following day, supporting a role for the pIC in consolidation of fear memory. The long-term (ca. a week) and reversible inactivation of the pIC with the sodium channel blocker neosaxitoxin, immediately after fear memory reactivation induced a progressive decrease in the behavioral expression of conditioned fear. In turn, we observed that fear memory reactivation is accompanied by an enhanced expression of Fos and Zif268, early genes involved in neural activity and plasticity. Taken together these data indicate that the pIC is involved in the regulation of fear memories.
authors: Departamento de Fisiología, Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Alameda 340, Santiago, Chile.
authors: José Patricio
authors: JP
authors: Casanova
authors: Departamento de Fisiología, Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Alameda 340, Santiago, Chile; Centro de Fisiología Celular e Integrativa, Facultad de Medicina, Clínica Alemana - Universidad del Desarrollo, Av. Las Condes 12438, Santiago, Chile.
authors: Carlos
authors: C
authors: Madrid
authors: Departamento de Fisiología, Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Alameda 340, Santiago, Chile.
authors: Marco
authors: M
authors: Contreras
authors: Departamento de Fisiología, Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Alameda 340, Santiago, Chile.
authors: María
authors: M
authors: Rodríguez
authors: Departamento de Biología Molecular y Microbiología, Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Chile.
authors: Mónica
authors: M
authors: Vasquez
authors: Departamento de Fisiología, Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Alameda 340, Santiago, Chile. Electronic address: ftorrealba@bio.puc.cl.
authors: Fernando
authors: F
authors: Torrealba
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000841:Anisomycin / Q000494:pharmacology; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D003213:Conditioning, Psychological / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D051766:Early Growth Response Protein 1 / Q000502:physiology; D004791:Enzyme Inhibitors / Q000494:pharmacology; D005239:Fear / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D016762:Genes, fos / Q000502:physiology; D065812:Interoception / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D012530:Saxitoxin / Q000031:analogs & derivatives / Q000494:pharmacology; D026941:Sodium Channel Blockers / Q000494:pharmacology; D013788:Thalamus
chemical_list: D051766:Early Growth Response Protein 1; C486110:Egr1 protein, rat; D004791:Enzyme Inhibitors; D026941:Sodium Channel Blockers; D012530:Saxitoxin; D000841:Anisomycin; C034902:neosaxitoxin
keywords: Conditioned fear; Consolidation; Insula; Insular cortex; Memory