The blockade of the serotoninergic receptors 5-HT5A, 5-HT6 and 5-HT7 in the basolateral amygdala, but not in the hippocampus facilitate the extinction of fear memory.

Extinction is the learned inhibition of retrieval. It is the mainstay of exposure therapy, which is widely used to treat drug addiction, phobias and fear-related pathologies such as post-traumatic stress disorder. The serotonin (5-HT) system is positioned to modulate the extinction circuitry via ascending 5-HT projections that innervate certain brain structures including the hippocampus and the basolateral amygdala (BLA). The most recently described serotoninergic receptors 5-HT5A, 5-HT6, 5-HT7 affect different memory processes and so are putative therapeutic targets for disorders related to cognition; however, their role in the extinction of contextual fear conditioning (CFC) has not been studied yet. Here we investigate the role of these receptors in the CA1 region of the hippocampus and the BLA in the extinction of CFC. For this, male rats were implanted with cannulae in the CA1 or in the BLA region through which they received immediately or 3 h after extinction training of CFC infusions of SB699551 (10 μg/side), 5-HT5A antagonist; WAY-208466 (0.04 μg/side), 5-HT6 agonist; SB-271046A (10 μg/side), 5-HT6 antagonist; AS-19 (5 μg/side), 5-HT7 agonist; SB-269970 (5 μg/side), 5-HT7 antagonist. After 24 h, animals were submitted to a 3 min extinction test. Results show that the infusion immediately after extinction training of 5-HT5A, 5-HT6 and 5-HT7 antagonists, and 3 h after extinction training of 5-HT5A and 5-HT7 antagonists in the BLA region, but not in CA1, facilitates the extinction of CFC memory.