Recent demonstrations of "reconsolidation" suggest that memories can be modified when they are reactivated. Reconsolidation has been observed in human procedural memory and in implicit memory in infants. This study asks whether episodic memory undergoes reconsolidation. College students learned a list of objects on Day 1. On Day 2, they received a…

In "Drosophila," calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII) activity is crucial in associative courtship conditioning for both memory formation and suppression of courtship during training with a mated female. We have previously shown that increasing levels of constitutively active CaMKII, but not calcium-dependent CaMKII, in a subset…

The Barnes maze is a spatial memory task that requires subjects to learn the position of a hole that can be used to escape the brightly lit, open surface of the maze. Two experiments assessed the relative importance of spatial (extra-maze) versus proximal visible cues in solving the maze. In Experiment 1, four groups of mice were trained either…

Three experiments show latent (or incidental) learning of salt-cue relationships using a conditioned cue-preference paradigm. Rats drank a salt solution while confined in one compartment and water in an adjacent, distinct compartment on alternate days. When given access to the two compartments with no solutions present, sodium-deprived rats…

Learning strategy preferences depend upon circulating estrogen levels, with enhanced hippocampus-sensitive place learning coinciding with elevated estrogen levels. The effects of estrogen on strategy may be mediated by fluctuations in GABAergic function, given that inhibitory tone in the hippocampus is low when estrogen is high. We investigated…

The adult cerebral cortex can adapt to environmental change. Using monocular deprivation as a paradigm, we find that rapid experience-dependent plasticity exists even in the mature primary visual cortex. However, adult cortical plasticity differs from developmental plasticity in two important ways. First, the effect of adult, but not juvenile…