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Science 3 July 2009:
Vol. 325. no. 5936, pp. 87 - 89
DOI: 10.1126/science.1170869
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Reports

Role of Layer 6 of V2 Visual Cortex in Object-Recognition Memory

Manuel F. López-Aranda,1,2,4 Juan F. López-Téllez,1,2,4 Irene Navarro-Lobato,1 Mariam Masmudi-Martín,1 Antonia Gutiérrez,3,4 Zafar U. Khan1,2,4,*

Cellular responses in the V2 secondary visual cortex to simple as well as complex visual stimuli have been well studied. However, the role of area V2 in visual memory remains unexplored. We found that layer 6 neurons of V2 are crucial for the processing of object-recognition memory (ORM). Using the protein regulator of G protein signaling–14 (RGS-14) as a tool, we found that the expression of this protein into layer 6 neurons of rat-brain area V2 promoted the conversion of a normal short-term ORM that normally lasts for 45 minutes into long-term memory detectable even after many months. Furthermore, elimination of the same-layer neurons by means of injection of a selective cytotoxin resulted in the complete loss of normal as well as protein-mediated enhanced ORM.

1 Laboratory of Neurobiology, Centro de Investigaciones Médico-Sanitarias, University of Malaga, Campus Teatinos s/n, 29071 Malaga, Spain.
2 Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaga, Campus Teatinos s/n, 29071 Malaga, Spain.
3 Department of Cell Biology, Faculty of Science, University of Malaga, Campus Teatinos s/n, 29071 Malaga, Spain.
4 Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red sobre Enfermedades Neurodegenerativas (CIBERNED), Institute of Health Carlos III, Madrid, Spain.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: zkhan{at}uma.es

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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Remembering Outside the Box.
L. M. Saksida (2009)
Science 325, 40-41
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