Role of Secondary Sensory Cortices in Emotional Memory Storage and Retrieval in Rats

Abstract

The Storage of Emotions The neural mechanisms involved in emotional learning are well understood. However, how and where emotional memories are stored is still largely unclear. Sacco and Sacchetti (p. 649 ) now show that Pavlovian fear memories are stored in a modality-specific way in the secondary, but not primary, sensory cortices. The site of storage depended on whether the conditioned stimulus was visual, auditory, or olfactory. Only “old,” not new, memories were stored in this way, and lesions of secondary cortices, while disrupting the old memories, did not prevent the acquisition of new memories.