Glucocorticoids Promote Fear Generalization by Increasing the Size of a Dentate Gyrus Engram Cell Population

Background: Traumatic experiences, such as conditioned threat, are coded as enduring memories that are frequently subject to generalization, which is characterized by (re-) expression of fear in safe environments. However, the neurobiological mechanisms underlying threat generalization after a traumatic experience and the role of stress hormones in this process remain poorly understood.

Methods: We examined the influence of glucocorticoid hormones on the strength and specificity of conditioned fear memory at the level of sparsely distributed dentate gyrus (DG) engram cells in male mice.

Results: We found that elevating glucocorticoid hormones after fear conditioning induces a generalized contextual fear response. This was accompanied by a selective and persistent increase in the excitability and number of activated DG granule cells. Selective chemogenetic suppression of these sparse cells in the DG prevented glucocorticoid-induced fear generalization and restored contextual memory specificity, while leaving expression of auditory fear memory unaffected.

Conclusions: These results implicate the sparse ensemble of DG engram cells as a critical cellular substrate underlying fear generalization induced by glucocorticoid stress hormones.