Arc function in behavior
Arc’s importance in the late phases of LTP and LTD indicates that it is likely to have an important functional
role in late phases of learning and memory. Interestingly, Arc KO mice learn new behavioral tasks in a similar manner to control mice, but cannot consolidate new memories 17]. For example, at 10 min after exposure to an object KO and wild type mice have achieved the same references for a novel object over the original one, indicating hat KO mice can learn and remember within this short time frame. However, at 24 h, wild type mice still referred a novel object, but KO mice did not. These mice also have disrupted memory consolidation during spatial earning, fear conditioning, and conditioned taste aversion[17] (Table 1). Consolidation can also be disrupted by infusions of Arc antisense ODNs given before or after training [60,70–72], which strongly supports the argument that the memory deficits observed in the KO mice are specific to a role for Arc in the mature hippocampus, and are not due to developmental deficits. Even after the period of consolidation, Arc antisense ODNs given during reactivation of a fear memory actually result in loss of the memory [73], demonstrating the extreme sensitivity of memory to Arc expression.