Post-training unilateral amygdala lesions selectively impair contextual fear memories.

The basolateral amygdala (BLA) and the dorsal hippocampus (dHPC) are both structures with key roles in contextual fear conditioning. During fear conditioning, it is postulated that contextual representations of the environment are formed in the hippocampus, which are then associated with foot shock in the amygdala. However, it is not known to what extent a functional connection between these two structures is required. This study investigated the effect on contextual and cued fear conditioning of disconnecting the BLA and dHPC, using asymmetrically placed, excitotoxic unilateral lesions. Post-training lesions selectively impaired contextual, but not cued, fear, while pretraining lesions resulted in a similar but nonsignificant pattern of results. This effect was unexpectedly observed in both the contralateral disconnection group and the anticipated ipsilateral control, which prompted further examination of individual unilateral lesions of BLA and dHPC. Post-training unilateral dHPC lesions had no effect on contextual fear memories while bilateral dHPC lesions and unilateral BLA lesions resulted in a near total abolition of contextual fear but not cued conditioned fear. Again, pretraining unilateral BLA lesions resulted in a strong but nonsignificant trend to the impairment of contextual fear. Furthermore, an analysis of context test-induced Fos protein expression in the BLA contralateral to the lesion site revealed no differences between post-training SHAM and unilateral BLA lesioned animals. Therefore, post-training unilateral lesions of the BLA are sufficient to severely impair contextual, but not cued, fear memories

Brief of Amici Curiae Labor Economists and Social Scientists in Support of the Petition for Writ of Certiorari

Richard M. Villarreal v. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., et al

Longitudinal Position and Cancer Risk in the United States Revisited

The debate over whether to keep daylight savings time has gained attention in recent years, with interest in understanding how the length of exposure to sunlight may affect health outcomes. In this study, we analyzed cancer incidence rates in counties located in different longitudinal positions within time zones and across time zone borders in the contiguous United States. Using both linear and spatial regression models, we found that differences in cancer rates are not significant within time zones or near time zone borders, which challenges previous research. Furthermore, we examined breast, liver, lung, and prostate cancer rates and found that only breast and liver cancers show an increase in incidence from the eastern border to the west within a time zone, while prostate cancer shows the opposite trend. Our study provides insights into the potential difference on human health incurred by an additional hour of sunlight in the morning versus in the evening, which could inform the ongoing discussions about daylight savings time

On the transition from reconsolidation to extinction of contextual fear memories.

Retrieval of an associative memory can lead to different phenomena. Brief reexposure sessions tend to trigger reconsolidation, whereas more extended ones trigger extinction. In appetitive and fear cued Pavlovian memories, an intermediate "null point" period has been observed where neither process seems to be engaged. Here we investigated whether this phenomenon extends to contextual fear memory. Adult rats were subjected to a contextual fear conditioning paradigm, reexposed to the context 2 d later for 3, 5, 10, 20, or 30 min, with immediate injections of MK-801 or saline following reexposure, and tested on the following day. We observed a significant effect of MK-801 with the 3- and 30-min sessions, impairing reconsolidation and extinction, respectively. However, it did not have significant effects with 5-, 10-, or 20-min sessions, even though freezing decreased from reexposure to test. Further analyses indicated that this is not likely to be due to a variable transition point at the population level. In conclusion, the results show that in contextual fear memories there is a genuine "null point" between the parameters that induce reconsolidation and extinction, as defined by the effects of MK-801, although NMDA receptor-independent decreases in freezing can still occur in these conditions

Brief of Appellant

Merrick v. Inmate Legal Service

Reply Brief of Appellant

Merrick v. Inmate Legal Service

Reply Brief of Appellant

Merrick v. Inmate Legal Service

Brief of Appellant

Merrick v. Inmate Legal Service

Postretrieval Relearning Strengthens Hippocampal Memories via Destabilization and Reconsolidation.

Memory reconsolidation is hypothesized to be a mechanism by which memories can be updated with new information. Such updating has previously been shown to weaken memory expression or change the nature of the memory. Here we demonstrate that retrieval-induced memory destabilization also allows that memory to be strengthened by additional learning. We show that for rodent contextual fear memories, this retrieval conditioning effect is observed only when conditioning occurs within a specific temporal window opened by retrieval. Moreover, it necessitates hippocampal protein degradation at the proteasome and engages hippocampal Zif268 protein expression, both of which are established mechanisms of memory destabilization-reconsolidation. We also demonstrate a conceptually analogous pattern of results in human visual paired-associate learning. Retrieval-relearning strengthens memory performance, again only when relearning occurs within the temporal window of memory reconsolidation. These findings link retrieval-mediated learning in humans to the reconsolidation literature, and have potential implications both for the understanding of endogenous memory gains and strategies to boost weakly learned memories

Maya Arce, et al. v. Diane Douglas, et. al

Fighting Arizona\u27s Attack on Ethnic Studie