Dissociations within short−term memory in GluA1 AMPA receptor subunit knockout mice

GluA1 AMPA receptor subunit knockout mice display a selective impairment on short−term recognition memory tasks. In this study we tested whether GluA1 is important for short−term memory that is necessary for bridging the discontiguity between cues in trace conditioning. GluA1 knockout mice were not impaired at using short−term memory traces of T−maze floor inserts, made of different materials, to bridge the temporal gap between conditioned stimuli and reinforcement during appetitive discrimination tasks. Thus, different aspects of short−term memory are differentially sensitive to GluA1 deletion. This dissociation may reflect processing of qualitatively different short−term memory traces. Memory that results in performance of short−term recognition (e.g. for objects or places) may be different from the memory required for associative learning in trace conditionin