| First Author | Liu Z | Year | 2024 |
| Journal | Nature | Volume | 632 |
| Issue | 8024 | Pages | 366-374 |
| PubMed ID | 38961294 | Mgi Jnum | J:358856 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:7783755 | Doi | 10.1038/s41586-024-07632-5 |
| Citation | Liu Z, et al. (2024) The cortical amygdala consolidates a socially transmitted long-term memory. Nature 632(8024):366-374 |
| abstractText | Social communication guides decision-making, which is essential for survival. Social transmission of food preference (STFP) is an ecologically relevant memory paradigm in which an animal learns a desirable food odour from another animal in a social context, creating a long-term memory(1,2). How food-preference memory is acquired, consolidated and stored is unclear. Here we show that the posteromedial nucleus of the cortical amygdala (COApm) serves as a computational centre in long-term STFP memory consolidation by integrating social and sensory olfactory inputs. Blocking synaptic signalling by the COApm-based circuit selectively abolished STFP memory consolidation without impairing memory acquisition, storage or recall. COApm-mediated STFP memory consolidation depends on synaptic inputs from the accessory olfactory bulb and on synaptic outputs to the anterior olfactory nucleus. STFP memory consolidation requires protein synthesis, suggesting a gene-expression mechanism. Deep single-cell and spatially resolved transcriptomics revealed robust but distinct gene-expression signatures induced by STFP memory formation in the COApm that are consistent with synapse restructuring. Our data thus define a neural circuit for the consolidation of a socially communicated long-term memory, thereby mechanistically distinguishing protein-synthesis-dependent memory consolidation from memory acquisition, storage or retrieval. |
