Cognition, Behavior, and Memory
Author: Sofía Oriana Belforte | Email: sofiaorianabelforte@gmail.com
Sofía Oriana Belforte1°, Soledad Picco1°, Paula Hoijer2°, Rodrigo Fernández1°, Eugenia Pedreira1°, Luciano Cavallino1°
1° Laboratorio de Neurociencias de la memoria, Instituto de Fisiología, Biología Molecular y Neurociencias (IFIBYNE), CONICET, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
2° Free University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Nederlands.
Retrieving a consolidated memory can trigger different processes, such as memory reactivation by the cues (reminders) presented during acquisition. Threat-conditioning memory plays a central role in anxiety disorders, impacting complex cognitive systems and inducing an overestimation of potential threats. We designed a differential threat-conditioning protocol, the association of an angry face conditioning stimulus (CS+) with an aversive tone unconditioned stimulus (US), combined with declarative tasks to analyze the interplay between implicit memory and cognitive bias. We showed that during the reactivation session, 24 hours after acquisition, CS+ presentation followed by an amnesic treatment weakened memory retention as expressed in skin conductance response (SCR) and the representation of the threat on Day 3, demonstrating a period of memory malleability after reactivation. Only a few reports have shown that memory modification might occur earlier than the declarative changes associated with the aversive stimuli. Therefore, this study aims to determine the effect of repeated reactivations on the threat conditioning memory and the stimuli representation by analyzing different time windows. We performed various experiments with varying numbers of CS+ presentations during the reactivation session, evaluating its effects 24 or 3 weeks after acquisition. The results show a different temporal dynamic between the implicit memory and the changes observed in the cognitive bias.