美国加州大学旧金山分校Mazen A. Kheirbek、Jonah R. Chan等研究人员合作发现，保留长期恐惧记忆需要新髓鞘质的形成。该研究于2020年2月10日在线发表于国际一流学术期刊《自然—神经科学》。

Author: Simon Pan, Sonia R. Mayoral, Hye Sun Choi, Jonah R. Chan, Mazen A. Kheirbek

Issue&Volume: 2020-02-10

Abstract: Experience-dependent myelination is hypothesized to shape neural circuit function and subsequent behavioral output. Using a contextual fear memory task in mice, we demonstrate that fear learning induces oligodendrocyte precursor cells to proliferate and differentiate into myelinating oligodendrocytes in the medial prefrontal cortex. Transgenic animals that cannot form new myelin exhibit deficient remote, but not recent, fear memory recall. Recording population calcium dynamics by fiber photometry, we observe that the neuronal response to conditioned context cues evolves over time in the medial prefrontal cortex, but not in animals that cannot form new myelin. Finally, we demonstrate that pharmacological induction of new myelin formation with clemastine fumarate improves remote memory recall and promotes fear generalization. Thus, bidirectional manipulation of myelin plasticity functionally affects behavior and neurophysiology, which suggests that neural activity during fear learning instructs the formation of new myelin, which in turn supports the consolidation and/or retrieval of remote fear memories.

DOI: 10.1038/s41593-019-0582-1

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41593-019-0582-1