S-040
Disentangling memory layer by layer
Natalia Micaela El Hage Barritta1,2, Valentina Coego2, Margarita Rigamonti2, Diego Moncada1,2
  1. Instituto de Biología Celular y Neurociencias (IBCN) - UBA / CONICET
  2. Instituto Tecnológico de Buenos Aires (ITBA)
Presenting Author:
Natalia Micaela El Hage Barritta
nmelhage@gmail.com
Memory, the collection of experiences that defines each individual, is continuously reshaped by new learning and reactivation of stored information. Reconsolidation, triggered by mismatches between recalled memory and current circumstances, has been proposed as a mechanism that updates memories in response to environmental or personal changes. If recall occurs frequently in such conditions, reconsolidation could be engaged repeatedly, implying the existence of a biological system that organizes successive updates. To explore this possibility, we tracked a memory across multiple reactivation sessions using a recognition task in rats. Each session incorporated new information about an object’s position into long-term storage. Disrupting reconsolidation prevented this updating and induced retroactive amnesia. Notably, when disruption occurred during a second reconsolidation session, the extent of retrograde amnesia depended on the reminder: if it involved recent memory content, amnesia extended to information integrated during the first reconsolidation without affecting the original learning. Conversely, if the original memory was destabilized, a failure in reconsolidation compromised both training and later reconsolidated information. These findings suggest that memory is organized in successive, interconnected layers, with each containing partial representations of the trace.