| Summary |
Social communication guides decision making that is essential for survival. Social transmission of food preference (STFP) is an ecologically relevant memory paradigm in which an animal learns a desirable food odor from other animals in a social context. How food-preference memory is acquired, consolidated, and stored is unclear. Here, we identify a circuit involving the posteromedial nucleus of the cortical amygdala (COApm) as a computational center that integrates social and sensory olfactory inputs for long-term STFP memory consolidation. Blocking synaptic signaling by the COApm circuit selectively abolished STFP memory consolidation without impairing memory acquisition, storage, or recall. STFP memory consolidation by the COApm depends on synaptic inputs from the accessory olfactory bulb and on synaptic outputs to the anterior olfactory nucleus and requires protein synthesis, suggesting a gene expression mechanism. Deep single-cell and spatial transcriptomics revealed robust but distinct gene expression signatures induced by STFP memory formation in the COApm consistent with synapse restructuring. Our data thus define a neural circuit for consolidation of a socially communicated long-term memory, thereby mechanistically distinguishing protein synthesis-dependent memory consolidation from memory acquisition, storage, or retrieval.
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