Cue-dependent amnesia in rats.

Abstract

Rats were given extensive training in a complicated appetitive maze. Following a retention interval of 7 days they were given a single electroconvulsive shock (ESC). Animals for which memory cues had been reinstated just prior to ECS were found to be more amnesic upon retest than animals whose memories had not been reinstated. Thus, amnesia can be produced for wellestablished memories if the memory cues are present at the time the amnesic agent occurs.The gradient of amnesia as a function of the learning-ECS interval has long been a primary bulwark supporting the consolidation theory (Dawson, 1971;McGaugh, 1966). According to this theory, the younger the engram the more susceptible it is to disruption, and, in time, the engram consolidates to the point that it can no longer be disrupted. Another interpretation for this gradient has been proposed by Misanin, Miller, and Lewis (1968). They argued that memory recency was the important variable rather than the age of the engram. When a memory is active, or at least in a transition phase from being passive to being active, it is most open to blocking, and therefore ECS will produce an amnestic gradient. To support their notion that ECS is a blocker of active memories rather than a disrupter of labile new memories, they demonstrated an amnesia for an older, well-consolidated memory that was active at the time ECS was presented. This is a form of "cue-dependent amnesia,"

Retrieval and Reconsolidation: Toward a Neurobiology of Remembering

“…After extensive training in a complex maze task, memory was reactivated by exposure to the start box and the click of the opening of its door (the start box alone was not a sufficient cue). When this was followed by the amnestic agent, ECS, amnesia was obtained (Lewis et al 1972;Lewis and Bregman 1973). Numerous control procedures assured that the specific cues associated with the original learning were essential to the effect and not merely a reinstatement of an emotional or motivational state, as had been suggested by other investigators Robbins and Meyer 1970).…”

Persistence and plasticity in the human memory system: An empirical investigation of the overwriting hypothesis

“…The finding that a retrieval cue could 'reactivate' a presumably consolidated memory trace and render it vulnerable to an amnesic agent once again came to be known as 'cue-dependent amnesia' (Lewis, Bregman, & Mahan, 1972;Lewis, 1979). Cue-dependent amnesia was reported in several subsequent studies across a range of paradigms and intervention types (e.g., Bregman, Nicholas, & Lewis, 1976;DeVietti & Holliday, 1972;Gerson & Hendersen, 1978;Judge & Quartermain, 1982;Lewis et al, 1972;Mactutus, Ferek, George, & Riccio, 1982;A.…”

“…Cue-dependent amnesia was reported in several subsequent studies across a range of paradigms and intervention types (e.g., Bregman, Nicholas, & Lewis, 1976;DeVietti & Holliday, 1972;Gerson & Hendersen, 1978;Judge & Quartermain, 1982;Lewis et al, 1972;Mactutus, Ferek, George, & Riccio, 1982;A. M. Schneider & Sherman, 1968).…”

Amnesia or retrieval deficit? Implications of a molecular approach to the question of reconsolidation

“…By following a passive avoidance retention test with electroconvulsive shock (ECS), amnesia for the task was evident in a later retrieval test. The same group later extended their findings to include post-retrieval interference of memory for a complex maze task (Lewis et al 1972). Judge and Quartermain (1982) were the first to demonstrate that post-retrieval maintenance of memory for an avoidance task is dependent on protein synthesis.…”