# Investigating the role of hippocampocortical circuitry in long term social memory.

> **NIH NIH F30** · UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO · 2024 · $41,740

## Abstract

Project Summary
Social memory is critical for daily functioning but becomes impaired in many neuropsychiatric disorders,
including Alzheimer disease and post-traumatic stress disorder. The dearth of effective therapeutics for social
memory deficits demands rigorous study of the neural circuit mechanisms governing social memory dynamics.
Recent work in mice has shown that neuronal ensembles in ventral hippocampal area CA1 (vCA1) and medial
prefrontal cortex (mPFC) encode various aspects of social interaction, including the identity of a social
conspecific. Moreover, intact communication in projections from vCA1 to mPFC is critical for short-term social
recognition memory, and mouse models of neuropsychiatric disorders with impaired social memory display
corresponding network deficits in this pathway. These findings are well-aligned with a canonical model of long-
term memory in which the hippocampus transfers a critical component of a memory’s representation to frontal
cortical areas for long-term consolidation. However, mechanisms underlying long-term consolidation of social
memories, such as whether social memories abide by this hippocampocortical transfer model, remain largely
uninvestigated. A major reason for this deficit is the highly fleeting nature of social memories in common
laboratory rodents preventing meaningful efforts to study long-term recall.
 Thus, the goal of this proposal is to test whether hippocampocortical memory transfer underlies lasting
social memory consolidation using a novel model of long-term social memory in pair bonded prairie voles.
Prairie voles, like humans, form monogamous, mating-based pair bonds. These bonds require stable,
emotionally salient memory of the partner for long-term maintenance; this project will thus leverage pair
bonding as a proxy for lasting and emotionally salient social memory. Aim 1 will determine the necessity of
intact neuronal signaling in vCA1, mPFC, and vCA1-to-mPFC projections in prairie vole pair bond memory
acquisition and long-term recall through reversible chemogenetic inhibition of each circuit component. Aim 2
will examine neuronal dynamics in vCA1 and its projections to mPFC involved in the formation and long-term
recall of the memory of a pair bonded partner through in vivo calcium imaging.
 In sum, this proposal will expand our fundamental understanding of how emotionally salient social
memories are formed and stored for distant recall in the brain. This work will also provide the applicant with
invaluable training for his future career as a neuropsychiatrist focused on translating foundational knowledge
from systems neuroscience into novel, highly precise therapies for cognitive dysfunction.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10754259
- **Project number:** 5F30MH126607-03
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO
- **Principal Investigator:** William M Sheeran
- **Activity code:** F30 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $41,740
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2022-01-01 → 2025-12-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10754259

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10754259, Investigating the role of hippocampocortical circuitry in long term social memory. (5F30MH126607-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10754259. Licensed CC0.

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