The effects of acute stress on memory encoding are complex. Recent work has suggested that both the delay between stress and encoding and the relevance of the information learned to the stressor may modulate the effects of stress on memory encoding, but the relative contribution of each of these two factors is unclear. Therefore, in the present…

Prospective memory involves setting an intention to act that is maintained over time and executed when appropriate. Slow wave sleep (SWS) has been implicated in maintaining prospective memories, although which SWS oscillations most benefit this memory type remains unclear. Here, we investigated SWS spectral power correlates of prospective memory.…

Reward is thought to attenuate forgetting through the automatic effect of dopamine on hippocampal memory traces. Here we report a conceptual replication of previous results where we did not observe this effect of reward. Participants encoded eight lists of pictures and recalled picture content immediately or the next day. They were informed that…

Novelty is a potent driver of learning, but little is known about whether anticipation of novelty can enhance memory for incidental information. Here, participants incidentally encountered objects while they actively navigated toward novel or previously familiarized virtual rooms. Across immediate and delayed surprise memory tests, participants…

Females are at higher risk for certain opioid addictive behaviors, but the influence of ovarian hormones is unknown. In our rat model of heroin self-administration, females exhibited higher relapse rates that correlated with rates of heroin seeking on the first extinction session. We administered estradiol alone, or in combination with…

Curiosity states benefit memory for target information, but also incidental information presented during curiosity states. However, it is not known whether incidental curiosity-enhanced memory depends on when incidental information during curiosity states is encountered. Here, participants incidentally encoded unrelated face images at different…

An essential feature of episodic memory is the ability to recall the multiple elements relating to one event from the multitude of elements relating to other, potentially similar events. Hippocampal pattern separation is thought to play a fundamental role in this process, by orthogonalizing the representations of overlapping events during…

Working memory (WM), the capacity for short-term storage of small quantities of information for immediate use, is thought to depend on activity within the prefrontal cortex. Recent evidence indicates that the prefrontal neuronal activity supporting WM is driven by thalamocortical connections arising in mediodorsal thalamus (mdThal). However, the…

Recent studies have shown that exposure to a novel environment may stabilize the persistence of weak memories, a phenomenon often attributed to a process referred to as "behavioral tagging." While this phenomenon has been repeatedly demonstrated in adult animals, no studies to date have examined whether it occurs in infant animals, which…

We characterized the transcriptional response accompanying maintenance of long-term sensitization (LTS) memory in the pleural ganglia of "Aplysia californica" using microarray (N = 8) and qPCR (N = 11 additional samples). We found that 24 h after memory induction there is strong regulation of 1198 transcripts (748 up and 450 down) in a…

Training "Aplysia" with inedible food for a period that is too brief to produce long-term memory becomes effective in producing memory when training is paired with a nitric oxide (NO) donor. Lip stimulation for the same period of time paired with an NO donor is ineffective. Using qPCR, we examined molecular correlates of brief training…

Starvation causes a motivational state that facilitates diverse behaviors such as feeding, walking, and search. Starved "Drosophila" can form odor/feeding-time associations but the role of starvation in encoding of "time" is poorly understood. Here we show that the extent of starvation is correlated with the fly's ability to…

With a rising aging population, it is important to develop behavioral tasks that assess and track cognitive decline, and to identify protective factors that promote healthy brain aging. Mnemonic discrimination tasks that rely on pattern separation mechanisms are a promising metric to detect subtle age-related memory impairments. Behavioral…

Emotional arousal enhances memory encoding and consolidation leading to better immediate and delayed memory. Although the central noradrenergic system and the amygdala play critical roles in both effects of emotional arousal, we have recently shown that these effects are at least partly independent of each other, suggesting distinct underlying…

The evolutionarily conserved Elongator Complex associates with RNA polymerase II for transcriptional elongation. Elp3 is the catalytic subunit, contains histone acetyltransferase activity, and is associated with neurodegeneration in humans. Elp1 is a scaffolding subunit and when mutated causes familial dysautonomia. Here, we show that…