TY - JOUR TI - Distinct memory engrams in the infralimbic cortex of rats control opposing environmental actions on a learned behavior AU - Suto, Nobuyoshi AU - Laque, Amanda AU - De Ness, Genna L AU - Wagner, Grant E AU - Watry, Debbie AU - Kerr, Tony AU - Koya, Eisuke AU - Mayford, Mark R AU - Hope, Bruce T AU - Weiss, Friedbert A2 - Eichenbaum, Howard VL - 5 PY - 2016 DA - 2016/12/10 SP - e21920 C1 - eLife 2016;5:e21920 DO - 10.7554/eLife.21920 UR - https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.21920 AB - Conflicting evidence exists regarding the role of infralimbic cortex (IL) in the environmental control of appetitive behavior. Inhibition of IL, irrespective of its intrinsic neural activity, attenuates not only the ability of environmental cues predictive of reward availability to promote reward seeking, but also the ability of environmental cues predictive of reward omission to suppress this behavior. Here we report that such bidirectional behavioral modulation in rats is mediated by functionally distinct units of neurons (neural ensembles) that are concurrently localized within the same IL brain area but selectively reactive to different environmental cues. Ensemble-specific neural activity is thought to function as a memory engram representing a learned association between environment and behavior. Our findings establish the causal evidence for the concurrent existence of two distinct engrams within a single brain site, each mediating opposing environmental actions on a learned behavior. KW - neuronal ensemble KW - infralimbic cortex KW - appetitive behavior KW - memory engrams KW - operant conditioning KW - Pavlovian conditioning JF - eLife SN - 2050-084X PB - eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd ER -