Fear and trauma generate long-lasting memories but the underlying brain circuits are mainly unknown.
In their recent paper, Silva et al. 2021 synchronized the TSE Multi Conditioning System with fiber photometry, chemogenetic and optogenetic manipulations to show that extinction of remote fear memories depends on thalamic nucleus reuniens inputs to the basolateral amygdala.
For the first time, real-time freezing behavior triggered fully automated closed-loop optogenetic activation or inhibition using the new TTL module of the TSE Multi Conditioning System. These findings provide the first functional description of circuits underlying attenuation of consolidated fear memories.