Requirement for hippocampal CA3 NMDA receptors in artificial association of memory events stored in CA3 cell ensembles

The N-methyl-d-aspartate receptors (NRs) in hippocampal CA3 are crucial for the synaptic transmission and plasticity within the CA3 recurrent circuit, which supports the hippocampal functions, such as pattern completion, and reverberatory association of sensory inputs. Previous study showed that synchronous activation of distinct cell populations in CA3, which correspond to distinct events, associated independent events, suggesting that the recurrent circuit expressing NRs in CA3 mediates the artificial association of memory events stored in CA3 ensembles. However, it is still unclear whether CA3 NRs are crucial for the artificial association of memory events stored in the CA3 ensembles. Here we report that the triple transgenic mice (cfos-tTA/KA1-Cre/NR1 flox/flox), which specifically lack NRs in the CA3 cell ensembles, showed impairment in artificial association between two events, which in control mice triggered artificial association. This result indicates that NRs in the hippocampal CA3 are required for the artificial association of memory events stored in the CA3 cell ensembles. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13041-023-01004-2.