Dissociation between memory reactivation and its behavioral expression: Scopolamine interferes with memory expression without disrupting long-term storage

The reconsolidation hypothesis has challenged the traditional view of fixed memories after consolidation. Reconsolidation studies have disclosed that the mechanisms mediating memory retrieval and the mechanisms that underlie the behavioral expression of memory can be dissociated, offering a new prospect for understanding the nature of experimental amnesia. The muscarinic antagonist scopolamine has been used for decades to induce experimental amnesias The goal of the present study is to determine whether the amnesic effects of scopolamine are due to storage (or retrieval) deficits or, alternatively, to a decrease in the long-term memory expression of a consolidated long-term memory. In the crab Chasmagnathus memory model, we found that scopolamine-induced amnesia can be reverted by facilitation after reminder presentation. This recovery of memory expression was reconsolidation specific since a reminder that does not triggers reconsolidation process did not allow the recovery. A higher dose (5 μg/g) of scopolamine induced an amnesic effect that could not be reverted through reconsolidation, and thus it can be explained as an interference with memory storage and/or retrieval mechanisms. These results, showing that an effective amnesic dose of scopolamine (100 ng/g) negatively modulates long-term memory expression but not memory storage in the crab Chasmagnathus, are consistent with the concept that dissociable processes underlie the mechanisms mediating memory reactivation and the behavioral expression of memory.

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► Scopolamine has been used for decades to induce experimental amnesias.
► These amnesias were interpreted as acquisition or consolidation interferences.
► Here, this induced amnesia is reverted by facilitation of reconsolidation.
► Results show that scopolamine negatively modulates long-term memory expression.
► This recovery is reconsolidation specific, discarded storage or retrievals deficits.