The cortical amygdala consolidates a socially transmitted long-term memory
Social transmission of food preference (STFP) involves the acquiring food odor from another animal in a social context. However, how food-preference memory is acquired, consolidated and stored is unclear.
Experiments in mice show that brain circuitry centred on the posteromedial nucleus of the cortical amygdala (COApm) has a key role in consolidating socially transmitted long-term memories.
The authors show that blocking synaptic signalling by the COApm-based circuit selectively abolished STFP memory consolidation without impairing memory acquisition, storage or recall. COApm-mediated STFP memory consolidation depends on synaptic inputs from the accessory olfactory bulb and on synaptic outputs to the anterior olfactory nucleus.
STFP memory consolidation requires protein synthesis, gene-expression mechanism and transcriptomics showed gene expression changes in synapse restructuring.
