Neuropeptidergic-glutamatergic circuit regulates selective forgetting of olfactory learning.

A Caenorhabditis elegans neuropeptidergic-glutamatergic circuit selectively drives forgetting of diacetyl olfactory memory during the recovery phase after conditioning.

• Why it matters: Active, selective forgetting is essential for adaptation, but the specific forgetting signal, its circuit route to sensory traces, and the timing window were unclear.
• What they did: The GnRH-related neuropeptide NLP-47 is secreted from AWC neurons and acts via GNRR-1 in AIZ interneurons; glutamatergic output from AIZ erases the AWA sensory memory trace through GLR-4. Optogenetic silencing of AWC and AIZ during recovery defined the critical forgetting window.
• The result: This pathway promotes forgetting of one odorant memory without affecting another formed simultaneously, showing that active forgetting is temporally gated and odorant-specific in C. elegans.

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