Hippocampal parvalbumin interneurons play a critical role in memory development

Episodic memories formed in early childhood rapidly decay, but their latent traces remain stored long term. These memories require the dorsal hippocampus (dHPC) and seem to undergo a developmental critical period. It remains to be determined whether the maturation of parvalbumin interneurons (PVIs), a major mechanism of critical periods, contributes to memory development. Here, we show that episodic infantile learning significantly increases the levels of parvalbumin in the dHPC 48 h after training. Chemogenetic inhibition of PVIs before learning indicated that these neurons are required for infantile memory formation. A bilateral dHPC injection of the γ-aminobutyric acid type A receptor agonist diazepam after training elicited long-term memory expression in infant rats, although direct PVI chemogenetic activation had no effect. Finally, PVI activity was required for brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF)-dependent maturation of memory competence, i.e., adult-like long-term memory expression. Thus, dHPC PVIs are critical for the formation of infantile memories and for memory development.