Journal
NEUROBIOLOGY OF LEARNING AND MEMORY
Volume 109, Issue -, Pages 20-26Publisher
ACADEMIC PRESS INC ELSEVIER SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1016/j.nlm.2013.11.004
Keywords
Prefrontal cortex; Memory retrieval; NMDA receptors; Spatial memory; Rat
Funding
- National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF)
- Korea government [MEST 2012R1A2A4A01008836]
- Cooperative Research Program for Agriculture Science & Technology Development, Rural Development Administration, Republic of Korea [PJ0084222013]
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The medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) has been suggested to play a crucial role in retrieving detailed contextual information about a previous learning episode in response to a single retrieval cue. However, few studies investigated the neurochemical mechanisms that mediate the prefrontal retrieval process. In the current study, we examined whether N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors (NMDARs) in the mPFC were necessary for retrieval of a well-learned spatial location on the basis of partial or degraded spatial cues. Rats were initially trained to find a hidden platform in the Morris water maze using four extramaze cues in the surrounding environment. Their retrieval performance was subsequently tested under different cue conditions. Infusions of DL-2-amino-5-phosphonovaleric acid (APV), a NMDAR antagonist, significantly disrupted memory retrieval when three of the original cues were removed. By contrast, APV injections into the mPFC did not affect animals' retrieval performance when the original cues were presented or when three novels landmarks were added alongside the original cues. These results indicate that prefrontal NMDARs are required for memory retrieval when allocentric spatial information is degraded. NMDAR-dependent neurotransmission in the mPFC may facilitate an active retrieval process to reactivate complete contextual representations associated with partial retrieval cues. (C) 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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