Abstract
SummaryNicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) expressed in the medial prefrontal cortex have critical roles in cognitive function. However, whether nAChRs are required for associative recognition memory and the mechanisms by which nAChRs may contribute to mnemonic processing are not known. We demonstrate that nAChRs in the prefrontal cortex exhibit subtype-specific roles in associative memory encoding and retrieval. We present evidence that these separate roles of nAChRs may rely on bidirectional modulation of plasticity at synaptic inputs to the prefrontal cortex that are essential for associative recognition memory.
Highlights
Associative visual recognition is the ability to integrate the identity of an object with the location in which it was encountered (Dickerson and Eichenbaum, 2010)
It is not known whether nicotinic acetylcholine receptors in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) play any role in encoding, consolidation, or retrieval of associative recognition memory in rats
HPC input to the mPFC is crucial for associative recognition memory (Barker et al, 2017), but whether activation of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) governs synaptic plasticity at HPC-mPFC synapses and how such nicotinic modulation may be involved in distinct phases of associative recognition memory are not known
Summary
Sabec et al reveal a divergence in function of prefrontal nicotinic receptor subtypes in different stages of long-term associative recognition memory that relates to bidirectional modulation of synaptic plasticity at hippocampalprefrontal synapses.
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