There is evidence that reorganization of neuronal circuits in the anterior cingulate cortex (aCC) occurs during remote memory storage. Here we describe how morphological changes progressively develop on aCC neurons during formation and stabilization of an aversive memory trace. Using a contextual fear conditioning protocol, we measured memory performance and spine density on aCC pyramidal neurons at several time points (1, 5, 7, 14, 21 days) following the training episode. Results show that aversive memory, estimated by the percentage of time spent freezing, was robust already 1 day posttraining and remained noteworthy stable until day 21. Morphological measurements in the trained animlas then revealed no evidence of cortical remodeling on day 5 posttraining, but a signifi cant increase in spines on day 7 which persisted until day 21. Interestingly, despite an equivalent number of spines was counted in aCC on days 7, 14, and 21, the number of single neurons showing increased spine density strongly varied across time-points. These fi ndings suggest that long term storage of the memory trace requires a relatively stable increase in spines provided by a variable number of recruited neurons.
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