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Sleep to forget: interference of fear memories during sleep

Molecular Psychiatry volume 18, pages 1166–1170 (2013)Cite this article

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Abstract

Memories are consolidated and strengthened during sleep. Here we show that memories can also be weakened during sleep. We used a fear-conditioning paradigm in mice to condition footshock to an odor (conditioned stimulus (CS)). Twenty-four hours later, presentation of the CS odor during sleep resulted in an enhanced fear response when tested during subsequent wake. However, if the re-exposure of the CS odor during sleep was preceded by bilateral microinjections of a protein synthesis inhibitor into the basolateral amygdala, the subsequent fear response was attenuated. These findings demonstrate that specific fear memories can be selectively reactivated and either strengthened or attenuated during sleep, suggesting the potential for developing sleep therapies for emotional disorders.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Drs Chuluun Bayarsaikhan and Antoine Adamantidis for their help. AR was supported by NARSAD Young Investigator Award. Other grant support that contributed to this study are an NSF predoctoral fellowship to MM; grants from NIMH and the Klarman Family Foundation to LdL; and grants from NIH as well as DSRTF, and RDSF to HCH.

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Author notes

  1. A Rolls and M Makam: These authors contributed equally to this work.

  2. L de Lecea and H Craig Heller: These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    A Rolls, D Kroeger & L de Lecea

  2. School of Medicine, Technion, Israel

    A Rolls

  3. Department of Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    M Makam, D Colas & H Craig Heller

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  1. A Rolls
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  2. M Makam
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Correspondence to H Craig Heller.

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The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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Rolls, A., Makam, M., Kroeger, D. et al. Sleep to forget: interference of fear memories during sleep. Mol Psychiatry 18, 1166–1170 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/mp.2013.121

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