Interplay of amygdala and insular cortex during and after associative taste aversion memory formation.

The formation and storage of aversively motivated memories is based on plastic changes within the amygdala and other brain structures that are modulated by its activity. One of these structures is the insular cortex,which integrates environmental and interoceptive information such that memory traces can be efficient and rapidly stored. A great example of an aversively motivated learning is the taste aversion paradigm, which involves several changes at the cellular level of the amygdala and the insular cortex in order to be acquired and consolidated.So far, the interplay of these structures was described in terms of their participation during exposure to the stimuli to be associated; however, because of the cellular properties and interconnections between them, their functional interplay may go beyond the acquisition stage and the learning experience might trigger an ongoing engagement of amygdala-insular cortex reactivations in order to store the information.