Effect of a positive reinforcing stimulus on fear memory reconsolidation in ethanol withdrawn rats: Influence of d-cycloserine

• Fear memory reconsolidation can be disrupted by a positive reinforcing stimulus in control rats.
• Ethanol withdrawal induces a fear memory trace that becomes insensitive to the disruptive effect of a reinforcing stimulus on the reconsolidation process.
• Pre-retrieval d-cycloserine restores the vulnerability to the disruptive effect of a reinforcing stimulus on reconsolidation process in ethanol withdrawn rats.

The pharmacological blockade of memory reconsolidation has been suggested as a potential treatment to the attenuation of maladaptive memories associated to psychiatric disorders and drug addiction. To interfere with the process of fear memory reconsolidation using a manipulation safer than pharmacological interventions, here we examined whether a positive reinforcing stimulus (non-alcoholic beer, NB) post-memory retrieval can decrease the fear response in ethanol withdrawn (ETOH) animals. We first evaluated the potential interfering effect of NB on memory reconsolidation in non-ethanol dependent (control, CON) rats. Non-alcoholic beer intake shortly after memory retrieval attenuated the fear response in CON rats. A resistance to destabilization/reconsolidation process was previously observed in ETOH rats, which was reversed by the activation of NMDA receptor induced by pre-retrieval d-cycloserine (DCS) administration. Therefore, the influence of DCS (5 mg/kg; i.p.) to facilitate the disruptive effect of NB on fear memory was examined in ETOH animals. As expected, NB was ineffective to attenuate the fear response in ETOH rats, with DCS being necessary to promote the disruptive effect of NB on the reconsolidation in these animals. Hence, DCS/reinforcing stimulus in combination with memory reactivation can be considered as an alternative approach for disrupting resistant fear memories.