Stress is a double-edged sword when it comes to memory: stressful or otherwise emotional events are usually more memorable, but stress can also make it harder for us to retrieve memories. Now, neuroscientists report that acute stress prevents mice from forming specific memories.
Instead, the stressed mice formed generalized memories, which are encoded by larger numbers of neurons.
To test whether stress impacts memory specificity, the researchers trained mice to associate one sound with stress, and another sound with no stress. Then, they tested the mice's ability to react appropriately to the different sounds. Specific memories are encoded by groups of neurons called engrams. Most engrams involve only a few neurons, but the researchers showed that the generalized engrams formed by stressed mice were larger, because inhibitory interneurons -- gatekeeping cells that usually keep engrams exclusive -- failed to do their job. This change, in turn, was driven by endocannabinoids that were released in the amygdala in response to corticosterone.
"We only examined aversive threat memories, but it would be interesting to examine whether stress similarly increases the generalization of a rewarding memories," says memory researcher and co-senior author Paul Frankland, also at SickKids and the University of Toronto.
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