Reconsolidation is observed when a consolidated stable memory is recalled, which renders it transiently labile and requires re-stabilization. Motor memory reconsolidation has previously been demonstrated using a three-day design: on day 1 the memory is encoded, on day 2 it is reactivated and experimentally manipulated, and on day 3 memory strength is tested. The aim of the current study is to d...

BACKGROUND Dysfunctional fear responses play a central role in many mental disorders. New insights in learning and memory suggest that pharmacological and behavioural interventions during the reconsolidation of reactivated fear memories may increase the efficacy of therapeutic interventions. It has been proposed that interventions applied during reconsolidation may modify the original fear memo...

Following the presentation of a reminder, consolidated memories become reactivated followed by a process of re-stabilization, which is referred to as reconsolidation. The most common behavioral tool used to reveal this process is interference produced by new learning shortly after memory reactivation. Memory interference is defined as a decrease in memory retrieval, the effect is generated when...

Following learning, a memory is fragile and undergoes a protein synthesis-dependent consolidation process in order to become stable. Established memories can again become transiently sensitive to disruption if reactivated and require another protein synthesis-dependent process, known as reconsolidation, in order to persist. Here, we show that, in the basolateral amygdala (BLA), protein synthesi...

Protein synthesis inhibitors block consolidation of memory and may also block the reconsolidation of a reactivated memory in paradigms of aversive learning, but the evidence for reconsolidation effects is conflicting in appetitive paradigms. We now report that intra-cerebroventricular (ICV) anisomycin (400microg) prevents consolidation of morphine-induced place preference (CPP), but does not im...

Memory consolidation is the process by which newly learned information is stabilized into long-term memory (LTM). Considerable evidence indicates that retrieval of a consolidated memory returns it to a labile state that requires it to be restabilized. Consolidation of new fear memories has been shown to require de novo RNA and protein synthesis in the lateral nucleus of the amygdala (LA). We ha...

Established fear-related memories can undergo phenomena such as extinction or reconsolidation when recalled. Extinction probably involves the creation of a new, competing memory trace that decreases fear expression, whereas reconsolidation can mediate memory maintenance, updating, or strengthening. The factors determining whether retrieval will initiate extinction, reconsolidation, or neither o...

INTRODUCTION Previous studies have demonstrated that the β-adrenergic receptor antagonist propranolol impairs fear memory reconsolidation in experimental animals. There are experimental parameters such as the age and the strength of memory that can interact with pharmacological manipulations of memory reconsolidation. In this study, we investigated the ability of the age and the strength of mem...

Recent accounts of the spacing effect have proposed molecular explanations that explain spacing over short, but not long timescales. In the first half of this paper, we review research on the spacing effect that has employed spaces of 24 h or more across skill-related tasks, language-related tasks and generalization for adults and children. Throughout this review, we distinguish between learnin...

Xenon (Xe) is a noble gas that has been developed for use in people as an inhalational anesthestic and a diagnostic imaging agent. Xe inhibits glutamatergic N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors involved in learning and memory and can affect synaptic plasticity in the amygdala and hippocampus, two brain areas known to play a role in fear conditioning models of post-traumatic stress disorder (PT...