Changes in Amnesia Parameters over Time after Long-Term Memory Disruption with Protein Kinase Mζ Inhibitor

Abstract

We studied the involvement of protein kinase Mζ (PKMζ) in the mechanisms of amnesia development within 10 days after disruption of conditioned food aversion memory with ZIP (a PKMζ inhibitor). Repeated training performed in 3 days after amnesia induction with ZIP, led to the formation of conditioned food aversion memory, but the number of combined presentations of food and reinforcer stimuli was lower than during the initial training. Repeated training performed in 10 days after amnesia induction also led to memory formation, but the number of combined presentations of the stimuli was similar to that during the initial training. It was hypothesized that at the early stages of ZIP-induced amnesia, residual memory trace can be restored and amplified during repeated training, which led to memory expression at the behavioral level. At the late stages of amnesia, this memory trace was completely erased and repeated training led to the formation of a new memory. Thus, PKMζ inhibition results in the relatively fast impairment of memory retrieval and induces long-term process of memory erasing.