title: The use of the Emotional-Object Recognition as an assay to assess learning and memory associated to an aversive stimulus in rodents.
abstract: Emotionally salient experiences induce the formation of explicit memory traces, besides eliciting automatic or implicit emotional memory in rodents. This study aims at investigating the implementation of a novel task for studying the formation of limbic memory engrams as a result of the acquisition- and retrieval- of fear-conditioning - biased declarative memory traces, measured by animal discrimination of an "emotional-object". Moreover, by using this new method we investigated the potential interactions between stimulation of cannabinoid transmission and integration of emotional information and cognitive functioning.
  
  
  
  The Emotional-Object Recognition task is composed of 3 following sessions: habituation; cued fear-conditioned learning; emotional recognition. Rats are exposed to Context "B chamber" for habituation and cued fear-conditioning, and tested in Context "A chamber" for emotional-object recognition.
  
  
  
  Cued fear-conditioning induces a reduction in emotional-object exploration time during the Emotional-Object Recognition task in controls. The activation of cannabinoid signalling impairs limbic memory formation, with respect to vehicle.
  
  
  
  The Emotional-Object Recognition test overcomes several limitations of commonly employed methods that explore declarative-, spatial memory and fear-conditioning in a non-integrated manner. It allows the assessment of unbiased cognitive indicators of emotional learning and memory.
  
  
  
  The Emotional-Object Recognition task is a valuable tool for investigating whether, and at what extent, specific drugs or pathological conditions that interfere with the individual affective/emotional homeostasis, can modulate the formation of emotionally salient explicit memory traces, thus jeopardizing control and regulation of animal behavioural strategy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Sciences for Health Promotion and Mother and Child Care "G. D'Alessandro", University of Palermo, via del Vespro 129, 90127 Palermo, Italy.
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Brancato
authors.affiliation: Department of Sciences for Health Promotion and Mother and Child Care "G. D'Alessandro", University of Palermo, via del Vespro 129, 90127 Palermo, Italy.
authors.forename: Gianluca
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Lavanco
authors.affiliation: Department of Sciences for Health Promotion and Mother and Child Care "G. D'Alessandro", University of Palermo, via del Vespro 129, 90127 Palermo, Italy.
authors.forename: Angela
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cavallaro
authors.affiliation: Department of Sciences for Health Promotion and Mother and Child Care "G. D'Alessandro", University of Palermo, via del Vespro 129, 90127 Palermo, Italy.
authors.forename: Fulvio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Plescia
authors.affiliation: Department of Sciences for Health Promotion and Mother and Child Care "G. D'Alessandro", University of Palermo, via del Vespro 129, 90127 Palermo, Italy. Electronic address: carla.cannizzaro@unipa.it.
authors.forename: Carla
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Cannizzaro
mesh_terms: D000700:Analgesics / Q000494:pharmacology; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000818:Animals; D001362:Avoidance Learning / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D048588:Benzoxazines / Q000494:pharmacology; D003214:Conditioning, Classical / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D003463:Cues; D004558:Electric Stimulation / Q000009:adverse effects; D005106:Exploratory Behavior / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D005239:Fear; D008124:Locomotion / Q000187:drug effects; D008297:Male; D018782:Maze Learning / Q000187:drug effects; D009025:Morpholines / Q000494:pharmacology; D009281:Naphthalenes / Q000494:pharmacology; D059225:Nociception / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D000700:Analgesics; D048588:Benzoxazines; D009025:Morpholines; D009281:Naphthalenes; C070417:(3R)-((2,3-dihydro-5-methyl-3-((4-morpholinyl)methyl)pyrrolo-(1,2,3-de)-1,4-benzoxazin-6-yl)(1-naphthalenyl))methanone
keywords: CB1 receptor; Explicit emotional memory; Limbic memory engrams; Object discrimination