Horizontal section through the mouse hippocampusWIKIMEDIA, BRAINMAPS.ORG
Traumatic memories are some of the most tenacious and long-lived. The more recent the memory, the more amenable it is to reconsolidation, where it is recalled and can then be modified to become less fearful. Researchers from MIT have now shown that a DNA modification that is controlled in part by the enzyme histone deacetylase 2 (HDAC2) helps make recent memories more prone to reconsolidation. The work was published last week (January 16) in Cell.
The researchers initially trained mice to fear a cage or a tone by administering a foot shock in the cage or while the tone was played. They then returned the mice to the cage or played the tone, so the animals would recall the fearful memory, tried to extinguish the ...
