The ability to separate similar experiences into differentiated representations is proposed to be based on a computational process called pattern separation, and it is one of the key characteristics of episodic memory. Although pattern separation has been mainly studied in the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus, this cognitive function if thought to take place also in other regions of the brain. The perirhinal cortex is important for the acquisition and storage of object memories, and in particular for object memory differentiation. The present study was devoted to investigate the importance of the cellular mechanism of endocytosis for object memory differentiation in the perirhinal cortex and its association with brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which was previously shown to be critical for the pattern separation mechanism in this structure. In accordance with the request for international regulations for the existence of gender parity in research, this work used female and male rats for all its experiments and comparatively analyzed its results. In this work, we used a peptide (Tat-P4) to block endocytosis and to showed that is necessary for the pattern separation mechanism in the perirhinal cortex. We also provide evidence from a molecular disconnection experiment that BDNF and endocytosis-related mechanisms interact for memory discrimination in both male and female rats.
P#119
Molecular Mechanisms involved in pattern separation in perirhinal cortex
Dinka Marina Piromalli Girado
- CABA, Buenos Aires,
- Argentina
- Dinka Piromalli Girado ¹
- , Magdalena Miranda ¹
- , Pedro Bekinschtein ¹
- 1 INCyT (Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva y Traslacional)