Short- and Long-Term Social Recognition Memory Are Differentially Modulated by Neuronal Histamine

The ability of recognizing familiar conspecifics is essential for many forms of social interaction including reproduction, establishment of dominance hierarchies, and pair bond formation in monogamous species. Many hormones and neurotransmitters have been suggested to play key roles in social discrimination. Here we demonstrate that disruption or potentiation of histaminergic neurotransmission differentially affects short (STM) and long-term (LTM) social recognition memory. Impairments of LTM, but not STM, were observed in histamine-deprived animals, either chronically (Hdc−/− mice lacking the histamine-synthesizing enzyme histidine decarboxylase) or acutely (mice treated with the HDC irreversible inhibitor α-fluoromethylhistidine). On the contrary, restriction of histamine release induced by stimulation of the H3R agonist (VUF16839) impaired both STM and LTM. H3R agonism-induced amnesic effect was prevented by pre-treatment with donepezil, an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor. The blockade of the H3R with ciproxifan, which in turn augmented histamine release, resulted in a procognitive effect. In keeping with this hypothesis, the procognitive effect of ciproxifan was absent in both Hdc−/− and αFMH-treated mice. Our results suggest that brain histamine is essential for the consolidation of LTM but not STM in the social recognition test. STM impairments observed after H3R stimulation are probably related to their function as heteroreceptors on cholinergic neurons.