NMDA receptors and BDNF are necessary for discrimination of overlapping spatial and non-spatial memories in perirhinal cortex and hippocampus

Authors

Magdalena Miranda, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas
Brianne A. Kent, The University of British Columbia
Juan Facundo Morici, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas
Francisco Gallo, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas
Lisa M. Saksida, Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience Institute
Timothy J. Bussey, Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience Institute
Noelia Weisstaub, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas
Pedro Bekinschtein, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

11-1-2018

Journal

Neurobiology of Learning and Memory

Volume

155

First Page

337

Last Page

343

URL with Digital Object Identifier

10.1016/j.nlm.2018.08.019

Abstract

Successful memory involves not only remembering information over time but also keeping memories distinct and less confusable. Discrimination of overlapping representations has been investigated in the dentate gyrus (DG) of the hippocampus and largely in the perirhinal cortex (Prh). In particular, the DG was shown to be important for discrimination of overlapping spatial memories and Prh was shown to be important for discrimination of overlapping object memories. In the present study, we used both a DG-dependent and a Prh-dependent task and manipulated the load of similarity between either spatial or object stimuli during information encoding. We showed that N-methyl-D-aspartate-type glutamate receptors (NMDAr) and BDNF participate of the same cellular network during consolidation of both overlapping object and spatial memories in the Prh and DG, respectively. This argues in favor of conserved cellular mechanisms across regions despite anatomical differences.