Differential roles of the basolateral amygdala and nucleus basalis magnocellularis during post-reactivation contextual fear conditioning reconsolidation in rats

The roles of the basolateral amygdala and nucleus basalis magnocellularis in fear conditioning reconsolidation were investigated by means of tetrodotoxin bilateral inactivation performed 96 h after conditioning, immediately after reactivation training. Footshocks of 1.2 mA intensity were employed to induce the generalization phenomenon. Basolateral amygdala inactivation disrupts the contextual fear response and its generalization but not acoustic CS trace retention, when measured 72 and 96 h after tetrodotoxin administration. Nucleus basalis magnocellularis functional inactivation does not affect memory post-reactivation phase of any of the three conditioned fear responses. The present findings show a differential role of the two structures in fear memory reconsolidation and can be a starting point for future investigation of the neural circuits subserving generalization.