Post-reactivation mifepristone impairs generalisation of strongly-conditioned contextual fear memories

Abstract

The efficacy of pharmacological disruption of fear memory reconsolidation depends on several factors, including memory strength and age. We built on previous observations that systemic treatment with the nootropic nefiracetam potentiates cued fear memory destabilization to facilitate mifepristone-induced reconsolidation impairment. Here, we applied nefiratecam and mifepristone to strongly-conditioned, 1-week old contextual fear memories in male rats. Unexpectedly, the combined treatment did not result in impairment of contextual fear expression. However, mifepristone did reduce freezing to a novel context. These observations suggest that strong and established contextual fear memories do undergo destabilization without the need for pharmacological facilitation, and that impairments in strong context fear memory reconsolidation can manifest as a reduction in generalization.