Abstract
Acute stress and emotional arousal can enhance the consolidation of long-term memories in a manner that is dependent on β-adrenoceptor activation in the basolateral complex of the amygdala (BLA). The BLA interacts with multiple memory systems in the brain to modulate a variety of classes of memory. However, the synaptic mechanisms of this interaction remain unresolved. This review describes the evidence of modulation of memory and synaptic plasticity produced by emotional arousal, stress hormones, and pharmacological or electrophysiological stimulation of the amygdala. The amygdala modulation of local translation and/or degradation of the synaptic plasticity-related proteins, activity-regulated cytoskeletal-associated protein and calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase IIα, is offered as a potential mechanism for the rapid memory consolidation that is associated with emotionally arousing events. This model shares features with synaptic tagging and the emotional tagging hypotheses.
About the authors
Jayme R. McReynolds completed her Bachelor of Science degree at the University of California, Irvine, where she examined stress effects on learning and memory in the laboratory of Dr. James L. McGaugh. She went on to complete her PhD in cognition and neuroscience at the University of Texas at Dallas under the guidance of Dr. Christa McIntyre. Her graduate research was focused on the role of the basolateral complex of the amygdala in modulating emotionally arousing memory and expression of plasticity-related proteins in efferent brain regions. She is now a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. John Mantsch’s laboratory at Marquette University studying the influence of stress on addictive behavior.
Christa K. McIntyre is an Assistant Professor of Cognition and Neuroscience in the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences at the University of Texas at Dallas. She earned her PhD at the University of Virginia under the mentorship of Dr. Paul Gold and did her postdoctoral work with Dr. James L. McGaugh at the University of California, Irvine. Her research examines the neurobiology of memory consolidation, with a focus on the influence of emotional arousal on memory and synaptic plasticity. Together with her graduate students, Christa McIntyre studies the effects of the autonomic nervous system on interacting brain systems with the aim of understanding how events of a single emotionally arousing experience are stored as long-term memories, whereas memories of nonarousing events are lost forever.
©2012 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin Boston
