Logo image
Object-location training elicits an overlapping but temporally distinct transcriptional profile from contextual fear conditioning
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Object-location training elicits an overlapping but temporally distinct transcriptional profile from contextual fear conditioning

Shane G Poplawski, Hannah Schoch, Mathieu E Wimmer, Joshua D Hawk, Jennifer L Walsh, Karl P Giese and Ted Abel
Neurobiology of learning and memory, Vol.116, pp.90-95
12/2014
DOI: 10.1016/j.nlm.2014.09.002
PMCID: PMC4262591
PMID: 25242102

View Online

Abstract

[Display omitted] •Microfluidic technology allows for large-scale qPCR experiments.•Object-location memory increases IEG expression similarly to fear conditioning.•Object-location memory induces gene expression changes that last at least 2h. Hippocampus-dependent learning is known to induce changes in gene expression, but information on gene expression differences between different learning paradigms that require the hippocampus is limited. The bulk of studies investigating RNA expression after learning use the contextual fear conditioning task, which couples a novel environment with a footshock. Although contextual fear conditioning has been useful in discovering gene targets, gene expression after spatial memory tasks has received less attention. In this study, we used the object-location memory task and studied gene expression at two time points after learning in a high-throughput manner using a microfluidic qPCR approach. We found that expression of the classic immediate-early genes changes after object-location training in a fashion similar to that observed after contextual fear conditioning. However, the temporal dynamics of gene expression are different between the two tasks, with object-location memory producing gene expression changes that last at least 2hours. Our findings indicate that different training paradigms may give rise to distinct temporal dynamics of gene expression after learning.
Transcription Object-location memory Hippocampus Spatial memory Fear conditioning

Details

Logo image