Inhibitory fear memory engram in the mouse central lateral amygdala
Cellular substrates of memory traces called engrams are present in various brain regions and contain excitatory, glutamatergic neurons, but GABAergic inhibitory engrams are not studied well.
The researchers report that fear learning triggers an inhibitory engram in the mouse central lateral (CeL) amygdala.
This engram is primarily composed of GABAergic somatostatin-expressing (SST(+)) and, to a lesser extent, protein kinase C-δ-expressing (PKC-δ(+)) neurons. Fear memory is accompanied by a preferential enhancement of synaptic inhibition onto PKC-δ(+) neurons.
The silencing of this engram disinhibits extra-amygdaloid areas, leading to the enhancement of the expression of fear.
https://www.cell.com/cell-reports/fulltext/S2211-1247(24)00797-6
