Participation of hippocampal cholinergic system in memory persistence for inhibitory avoidance in rats

Abstract

Memory persistence needs a new event of consolidation 12 h after the acquisition. We investigated the role of the cholinergic activity on the persistence of memory. For this purpose, we performed the treatments 9 or 12 h after acquisition and the memory tested 2 or 7 days after inhibitory avoidance (IA) training. Here we report that activity of medial septum, by transitorily inactivating this structure with lidocaine 12 h after IA training, is essential for memory persistence at the 7th day, but not for the formation at the 2nd day. We also report that muscarinic and nicotinic cholinergic receptors of CA1 area are engaged on memory persistence. Since scopolamine (mAChRs antagonist) and mecamylamine (nAChRs blocker) infusions, 12 h post-training, demonstrated impairment on long term memory (LTM), persistence on the 7th day but no effect on LTM formation was found on the 2nd day in the IA test. The same effects were found with pirenzepine, an M1 antagonist. No effects on the formation and persistence of memory on the 2nd and 7th days were demonstrated after DHbE infusions (nAChRs subtype antagonist a4b2, a3b2). These findings suggest that mAChR and nAChR at the CA1 area, and also MS activation, are required for the persistence of memory.