Hippocampal CB1 Receptors Control Incidental Associations

By priming brain circuits, associations between low-salience stimuli often guide future behavioral choices through a process known as mediated or inferred learning. However, the precise neurobiological mechanisms of these incidental associations are largely unknown. Using sensory preconditioning procedures, we show that type 1 cannabinoid receptors (CB1R) in hippocampal GABAergic neurons are necessary and sufficient for mediated but not direct learning. Deletion and re-expression of CB1R in hippocampal GABAergic neurons abolishes and rescues mediated learning, respectively. Interestingly, paired presentations of low-salience sensory cues induce a specific protein synthesis-dependent enhancement of hippocampal CB1R expression and facilitate long-term synaptic plasticity at inhibitory synapses. CB1R blockade or chemogenetic manipulations of hippocampal GABAergic neurons upon preconditioning affect incidental associations, as revealed by impaired mediated learning. Thus, CB1R-dependent control of inhibitory hippocampal neurotransmission mediates incidental associations, allowing future associative inference, a fundamental process for everyday life, which is altered in major neuropsychiatric diseases. Video Abstract: [Figure presented] Busquets-Garcia et al. suggest that cannabinoid CB1 receptors signaling in the hippocampus, a brain structure involved in memory processes, underlines the mammalian ability to associate randomly encountered stimuli, allowing future inferred memories and possibly explaining seemingly ungrounded responses toward certain cues.