AUTHOR=Gonzalez María C. , Kramar Cecilia P. , Tomaiuolo Micol , Katche Cynthia , Weisstaub Noelia , Cammarota Martín , Medina Jorge H. TITLE=Medial prefrontal cortex dopamine controls the persistent storage of aversive memories JOURNAL=Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience VOLUME=8 YEAR=2014 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/behavioral-neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fnbeh.2014.00408 DOI=10.3389/fnbeh.2014.00408 ISSN=1662-5153 ABSTRACT=

Medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) is essential for initial memory processing and expression but its involvement in persistent memory storage has seldom been studied. Using the hippocampus dependent inhibitory avoidance learning task and the hippocampus-independent conditioned taste aversion paradigm together with specific dopamine receptor agonists and antagonists we found that persistence but not formation of long-term aversive memories requires dopamine D1/D5 receptors activation in mPFC immediately after training and, depending on the task, between 6 and 12 h later. Our results indicate that besides its well-known participation in retrieval and early consolidation, mPFC also modulates the endurance of long-lasting aversive memories regardless of whether formation of the aversive mnemonic trace requires the participation of the hippocampus.