Stress-induced changes of the cholinergic circuitry promote retrieval-based generalization of aversive memories.

ABSTRACT: Generalization, the process of applying knowledge acquired in one context to other contexts, often drives the expression of similar behaviors in related situations. At the cellular level, generalization is thought to depend on the activity of overlapping neurons that represent shared features between contexts (general representations). Using contextual fear conditioning in mice, we demonstrate that generalization can also occur in response to stress and result from reactivation of specific, rather than general context representations. We found that generalization emerges during memory retrieval, along with stress-induced abnormalities of septohippocampal oscillatory activity and acetylcholine release, which are typically found in negative affective states. In hippocampal neurons that repre

SUBMITTER: Ren LY 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9846583 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature