title: Positive modulation of a neutral declarative memory by a threatening social event.
abstract: Memories can be altered by negative or arousing experiences due to the activation of the stress-responsive sympatho-adrenal-medullary axis (SYM). Here, we used a neutral declarative memory that was acquired during multi-trial training to determine the effect of a threatening event on memory without emotional valence. To this end, participants received a new threatening social protocol before learning pairs of meaningless syllables and were tested either 15 min, 2 days or 8 days after acquisition. We first demonstrated that this threatening social situation activates not only the SYM axis (Experiment 1) and the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA; Experiment 2), but also, it improves the acquisition or early consolidation of the syllable pairs (Experiment 3). This improvement is not a transient effect; it can be observed after the memory is consolidated. Furthermore, this modulation increases the persistence of memory (Experiment 4). Thus, it is possible to affect memories with specific events that contain unrelated content and a different valence.
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio de Neurobiología de la Memoria, Departamento de Fisiología, Biología Molecular y Celular, IFIBYNE-CONICET, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: Rodrigo S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Fernández
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio de Neurobiología de la Memoria, Departamento de Fisiología, Biología Molecular y Celular, IFIBYNE-CONICET, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina; Departamento de Física, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: Luz
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Bavassi
authors.affiliation: Fundación para la Lucha contra las Enfermedades Neurológicas de la Infancia (FLENI), Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: Jorge
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Campos
authors.affiliation: Fundación para la Lucha contra las Enfermedades Neurológicas de la Infancia (FLENI), Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: Ricardo F
authors.initials: RF
authors.lastname: Allegri
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Farmacología, IFEC/CONICET-UNC, Facultad de Ciencias Químicas, Córdoba, Argentina.
authors.forename: Victor A
authors.initials: VA
authors.lastname: Molina
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio de Neurobiología de la Memoria, Departamento de Fisiología, Biología Molecular y Celular, IFIBYNE-CONICET, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: Cecilia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Forcato
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio de Neurobiología de la Memoria, Departamento de Fisiología, Biología Molecular y Celular, IFIBYNE-CONICET, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina. Electronic address: mpedreira@fbmc.fcen.uba.ar.
authors.forename: María E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Pedreira
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect / Q000502:physiology*; D001794:Blood Pressure; D005260:Female; D006339:Heart Rate; D006801:Humans; D006854:Hydrocortisone / Q000378:metabolism; D007030:Hypothalamo-Hypophyseal System / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D010913:Pituitary-Adrenal System / Q000502:physiology*; D013060:Speech; D013315:Stress, Psychological; D013564:Sympathetic Nervous System / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D006854:Hydrocortisone
keywords: Autonomic nervous system; Memory improvement; Memory persistence; Neutral declarative memory; Pre-learning stress; Psychosocial stress