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Memories encoded in the dentate gyrus (DG) ‒ CA3 circuit of the hippocampus are routed from CA1 to anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) for consolidation. Although CA1 parvalbumin inhibitory neurons (PV INs) orchestrate hippocampal-cortical communication, we know less about CA3 PV INs or DG ‒ CA3 principal neuron ‒ IN circuit mechanisms that contribute to evolution of hippocampal-cortical ensembles during memory consolidation. Using viral genetics to selectively mimic and boost an endogenous learning-dependent circuit mechanism, DG cell recruitment of CA3 PV INs and feed-forward inhibition (FFI) in CA3, in combination with longitudinal in vivo calcium imaging, we demonstrate that FFI facilitates formation and maintenance of context-associated neuronal ensembles in CA1. Increasing FFI in DG ‒ CA3 promoted context specificity of neuronal ensembles in ACC over time and enhanced long-term contextual fear memory. In vivo LFP recordings in mice with increased FFI in DG ‒ CA3 identified enhanced CA1 sharp-wave ripple ‒ ACC spindle coupling as a potential network mechanism facilitating memory consolidation. Our findings illuminate how FFI in DG ‒ CA3 dictates evolution of ensemble properties in CA1 and ACC during memory consolidation and suggest a teacher-like function for hippocampal CA1 in stabilization and re-organization of cortical representations., Competing Interests: HT, VS, MK No competing interests declared, AS is a named inventor on a patent for targeting Ablim3 to improve memory (US Patent 10,287,580), (© 2022, Twarkowski et al.)

Adaptive fear responses to external threats rely upon efficient relay of computations underlying contextual encoding to subcortical circuits. Brain-wide analysis of highly coactivated ensembles following contextual fear discrimination identified the dorsolateral septum (DLS) as a relay of the dentate gyrus-CA3 circuit. Retrograde monosynaptic tracing and electrophysiological whole-cell recordings demonstrated that DLS somatostatin-expressing interneurons (SST-INs) receive direct CA3 inputs. Longitudinal in vivo calcium imaging of DLS SST-INs in awake, behaving mice identified a stable population of footshock-responsive SST-INs during contextual conditioning whose activity tracked and predicted non-freezing epochs during subsequent recall in the training context but not in a similar, neutral context or open field. Optogenetic attenuation or stimulation of DLS SST-INs bidirectionally modulated conditioned fear responses and recruited proximal and distal subcortical targets. Together, these observations suggest a role for a potentially hard-wired DLS SST-IN subpopulation as arbiters of mobility that calibrate context-appropriate behavioral fear responses.

Neuromodulation by means of the catecholaminergic system is a key component of motivation-driven learning and behaviorally modulated hippocampal synaptic plasticity. In particular, dopamine acting on D1/D5 receptors and noradrenaline acting on beta-adrenergic receptors exert a very potent regulation of forms of hippocampal synaptic plasticity that last for very long-periods of time (>24 h), and occur in conjunction with novel spatial learning. Antagonism of these receptors not only prevents long-term potentiation (LTP) and long-term depression (LTD), but prevents the memory of the spatial event that, under normal circumstances, leads to the perpetuation of these plasticity forms. Spatial learning behavior that normally comes easily to rats, such as object-place learning and spatial reference learning, becomes increasingly impaired with aging. Middle-aged animals display aging-related deficits of specific, but not all, components of spatial learning, and one possibility is that this initial manifestation of decrements in learning ability that become apparent in middle-age relate to changes in motivation, attention and/or the regulation by neuromodulatory systems of these behavioral states. Here, we compared the regulation by dopaminergic D1/D5 and beta-adrenergic receptors of persistent LTP in young (2-4 month old) and middle-aged (8-14 month old) rats. We observed in young rats, that weak potentiation that typically lasts for ca. 2 h could be strengthened into persistent (>24 h) LTP by pharmacological activation of either D1/D5 or beta-adrenergic receptors. By contrast, no such facilitation occurred in middle-aged rats. This difference was not related to an ostensible learning deficit: a facilitation of weak potentiation into LTP by spatial learning was possible both in young and middle-aged rats. It was also not directly linked to deficits in LTP: strong afferent stimulation resulted in equivalent LTP in both age groups. We postulate that this change in catecholaminergic control of synaptic plasticity that emerges with aging, does not relate to a learning deficit per se , rather it derives from an increase in behavioral thresholds for novelty and motivation that emerge with increasing age that impact, in turn, on learning efficacy.

Long-term synaptic plasticity, represented by long-term depression (LTD) and long-term potentiation (LTP) comprise cellular processes that enable memory. Neuromodulators such as serotonin regulate hippocampal function, and the 5-HT4 -receptor contributes to processes underlying cognition. It was previously shown that in the CA1-region, 5-HT4 -receptors regulate the frequency-response relationship of synaptic plasticity: patterned afferent stimulation that has no effect on synaptic strength (i.e., a θm-frequency), will result in LTP or LTD, when given in the presence of a 5-HT4 -agonist, or antagonist, respectively. Here, we show that in the dentate gyrus (DG) and CA3 regions of freely behaving rats, pharmacological manipulations of 5-HT4 -receptors do not influence responses generated at θm-frequencies, but activation of 5-HT4 -receptors prevents persistent LTD in mossy fiber (mf)-CA3, or perforant path-DG synapses. Furthermore, the regulation by 5-HT4 -receptors of LTP is subfield-specific: 5-HT4 -receptor-activation prevents mf-CA3-LTP, but does not strongly affect DG-potentiation. These data suggest that 5-HT4 -receptor activation prioritises information encoding by means of LTP in the DG and CA1 regions, and suppresses persistent information storage in mf-CA3 synapses. Thus, 5-HT4 -receptors serve to shape information storage across the hippocampal circuitry and specify the nature of experience-dependent encoding. © 2016 The Authors Hippocampus Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc., (© 2016 The Authors Hippocampus Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)