Hindawi Publishing Corporation

Neural Plasticity
Volume 2015, Article ID 687175, 2 pages
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2015/687175

Editorial
Molecular Mechanisms of Memory Consolidation,
Reconsolidation, and Persistence

Emiliano Merlo,1 Pedro Bekinschtein,2 Sietse Jonkman,3 and Jorge H. Medina2,4

1
Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience Institute and Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB23EB, UK
2
Instituto de Biologı́a Celular y Neurociencias “Dr. Eduardo De Robertis”, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Buenos Aires,
CONICET, 1121 Buenos Aires, Argentina
3
Department of Pharmacology and Systems Therapeutics, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029-6574, USA
4
Departamento de Fisiologı́a, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Buenos Aires, 1121 Buenos Aires, Argentina

Correspondence should be addressed to Jorge H. Medina; [email protected]

Received 19 May 2015; Accepted 28 May 2015

Copyright © 2015 Emiliano Merlo et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License,
which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

In the last decades there have been significant advances in our memory trace. The formation of associative memories and
understanding of the cellular and subcellular mechanisms their maintenance are evolutionary conserved phenomena
underlying changes in synaptic connectivity that subserve present from the simplest to the most complex animals. The
memory formation. The so called Theory of Synaptic Plastic- use of a multidisciplinary approach, comprising behavioural,
ity and Memory has gathered a wealth of experimental sup- physiological, and molecular analysis, in combination with
port from different areas of neuroscience to become the main a variety of wild and laboratory animals, from invertebrates
phenomenological description of memory at the behavioural to humans, brings light into the intricate mechanisms of
level. This special issue of neural plasticity compiles some of memory. The three research papers and five review articles
the most recent advances in our understanding of the mecha- included here were revised by at least two international
nisms underlying formation and persistence of different types experts and their comments helped in making each piece an
of memories from invertebrates to humans. Contributions even more compelling article.
from different laboratories around the world pinpoint hot This Issue includes two articles addressing novel mecha-
topics in this area of memory research, highlighting growing nisms in memory consolidation. B. Silva et al. used larvae of
avenues for future research. the fruitfly Drosophila to show that muscarinic-type acetyl-
The experience of a salient event can lead to the formation choline receptors contribute to the generation of olfactory
and storage of a long-term memory that can sculpt and aversive memory. Besides the obvious anatomical differences
alter future behaviour up to a lifetime of an individual. between vertebrate and invertebrate nervous systems, this
This unique and highly adaptive behavioural capacity relies article further supports the evolutionary conserved role of
on specific changes occurring within the brain. Specific key contributors to memory consolidation. T. P. Todd and D.
signalling pathways and patterns of gene expression are J. Bucci show that retrosplenial cortex (RSC) is specifically
required in neuronal and nonneuronal cells for the stabi- involved in forming associations among the neutral stimuli
lization and long-term persistence of synaptic changes that that are present in the environment. Furthermore, they
underlie memory. Depending on the retrieval conditions, discuss evidence that posits RSC as a site in which multiple
these fully consolidated memories can undergo reconsolida- cues are linked together in the service of memory formation
tion or extinction that will maintain or inhibit the expression and persistence after training.
of the original memory, respectively. These opposing memory A comprehensive review article by D. Moncada et al.
processes recruit distinctive subcellular events in order to serves both as an introduction and a thorough revision of
restabilize the original memory or to form a new inhibitory the existing literature regarding the experimental findings
2 Neural Plasticity

supporting the behavioural tagging process in rodents and understanding the key molecular mechanisms underlying
humans. This working hypothesis links the concept of the formation, persistence maintenance, and forgetting of
synaptic tagging proposed by Morris and Frey in the late different forms of memories will prove to be invaluable at
90s with more recent evidence of a significant promoting both the foundational and translational levels, helping the
effect of a novel behavioural experience in the formation of design and development of new therapeutical approaches.
new and independent associative memories. Moreover, M.
Tomaiuolo et al. establish novel links between the synaptic Acknowledgments
tagging hypothesis and memory persistence, showing that a
dopamine- and Arc-dependent maintenance tagging process We would like to thank all authors and reviewers for their
may operate in the hippocampus late after acquisition for the essential contribution to this special issue.
persistence of long-lasting memories. Ending the persistence
mechanisms section, J. B. Hales et al. investigated the effect of Emiliano Merlo
the zeta-inhibitory peptide (ZIP) in the persistence of recog- Pedro Bekinschtein
nition memory in rats. This article shows that recent, but not Sietse Jonkman
remote, object recognition memories can be disrupted by ZIP Jorge H. Medina
infusion into the hippocampus and suggests a dynamic role of
hippocampal LTP-dependent mechanisms supporting strong
recognition memories shortly after training.
J.-P. Morin et al. discuss at length the role of the protein
Arc as one of the main molecular substrates of memory.
They go over its characteristics and regulation and the
reasons why this molecule could be an essential part of the
memory engram. They propose that Arc possesses particular
characteristics like its persistent expression after learning its
pre- and posttranslational regulation and its interactions with
molecules at the synapse that make it an ideal candidate to
mediate plasticity in the cells activated by a given learning
experience.
Adult neurogenesis in the dentate gyrus of the hippocam-
pus has gained increasing interest as a potential plasticity
mechanism for learning and memory at the cell and system
level of analysis. The article by S. Yau et al. addresses the role
of adult hippocampal neurogenesis in learning and memory
focusing on novel findings that indicate a function for this
process in two features of memory. One of these features
is “pattern separation” which refers to the computational
process involved in separating the representations of similar
learning experiences. The second is the far less studied
process of memory forgetting, which will certainly be one
of the new most interesting fields in memory research. The
authors incorporate this new information and relate it to
treatments such as environmental enrichment and voluntary
exercise, which are known to increase neurogenesis.
The issue presents an article dedicated to analyse the
implications of memory studies for the development of novel
therapeutical tools for the treatment of psychiatric disorders
in humans. In particular, C. Köhler et al. propose that
the manipulation of the reconsolidation of autobiographical
memories might represent a novel therapeutic opportunity
for depression treatment. The authors suggest that disruption
of memory reconsolidation could serve as a novel approach
for the modification of dysfunctional autobiographical mem-
ories associated with major depressive disorder.
We are very pleased to introduce this special issue that
covers a variety of features of memory at different levels
of analysis. The persistent nature of maladaptive memory
components is a common characteristic in several psy-
chiatric disorders including posttraumatic stress disorder
(PTSD), specific phobias, and drug addiction. We believe that