Consolidation and reconsolidation of contextual fear memory requires mammalian target of rapamycin-dependent translation in the dorsal hippocampus

The mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) pathway is important for regulating protein translation. The present study characterized the role of mTOR-dependent translation in the dorsal hippocampus (DH) during the consolidation and reconsolidation of contextual fear memory. We first showed that fear conditioning resulted in increased phosphorylation of p70s6 kinase (p70s6K) in the DH and that infusion of the mTOR inhibitor rapamycin (RAP) into the DH immediately after training disrupted formation of long-term contextual fear memory. Additionally we showed that p70s6K was activated after retrieval of a previously stored fear memory, and inhibition of mTOR by DH infusion of RAP blocked the reconsolidation of contextual fear memory. Together these results demonstrate that within the DH translational control through the mTOR pathway is important for consolidation as well as the stability of fear memory after retrieval.

▶We assess the role of the mTOR pathway in fear conditioning and reconsolidation. ▶Post-training mTOR inhibition in the DH dose dependently disrupts memory formation. ▶Fear conditioning increases activation of the mTOR pathway. ▶Retrieval of fear memory increases activation of the mTOR pathway. ▶Post-retrieval mTOR inhibition in the DH disrupts fear memory reconsolidation.