Recoding a cocaine-place memory engram to a neutral engram in the hippocampus

Subsets of hippocampal neurons store map-like representations of experienced environments. The authors optogenetically silenced a neuronal population active in an environment and saw an alternative map emerge. In a cocaine-paired environment, this approach neutralized drug-place preference, implicating recoding of spatial memory engrams as strategy for alleviating maladaptive behaviors.