iScience (Jul 2024)

Projection neurons from medial entorhinal cortex to basolateral amygdala are critical for the retrieval of morphine withdrawal memory

  • Yali Fu,
  • Zixuan Cao,
  • Ting Ye,
  • Hao Yang,
  • Chenshan Chu,
  • Chao Lei,
  • Yaxian Wen,
  • Zhangyin Cai,
  • Yu Yuan,
  • Xinli Guo,
  • Li Yang,
  • Huan Sheng,
  • Dongyang Cui,
  • Da Shao,
  • Ming Chen,
  • Bin Lai,
  • Ping Zheng

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 27, no. 7
p. 110239

Abstract

Read online

Summary: The medial entorhinal cortex (MEC) is crucial for contextual memory, yet its role in context-induced retrieval of morphine withdrawal memory remains unclear. This study investigated the role of the MEC and its projection neurons from MEC layer 5 to the basolateral amygdala (BLA) (MEC−BLA neurons) in context-induced retrieval of morphine withdrawal memory. Results show that context activates the MEC in morphine withdrawal mice, and the inactivation of the MEC inhibits context-induced retrieval of morphine withdrawal memory. At neural circuits, context activates MEC−BLA neurons in morphine withdrawal mice, and the inactivation of MEC−BLA neurons inhibits context-induced retrieval of morphine withdrawal memory. But MEC−BLA neurons are not activated by conditioning of context and morphine withdrawal, and the inhibition of MEC−BLA neurons do not influence the coupling of context and morphine withdrawal memory. These results suggest that MEC−BLA neurons are critical for the retrieval, but not for the formation, of morphine withdrawal memory.

Keywords