Erasable Hippocampal Neural Signatures Predict Memory Discrimination.

We leveraged the spatial-temporal resolution of in vivo calcium imaging in freely moving mice to interrogate how blocking memory consolidation impacted learning-related hippocampal dynamics following contextual fear conditioning. We found that memory specificity correlated with the amount of cell turnover between a shock and neutral arena and that learning caused context-specific remapping. We induced amnesia by blocking protein synthesis following learning, which promoted an acute suppression of neural activity, and arrested learning-related place field remapping. Finally, freeze-predicting neural ensembles emerged following learning, and their coordinated activity required protein synthesis. We conclude that context-specific place field remapping and the development of coordinated ensemble activity underlie contextual fear memory consolidation.