To examine the specificity of the long-term memory rescue, the same animals were then tested on the hippocampal independent long-term ORM task (Fig 4E). Similar to our previous findings with the Baf53b+/− mice (Fig 2F), WT AAV-hrGFP animals showed a robust preference for the displaced object indicating long-term OLM. The Baf53b+/− het mice with the control virus showed significantly impaired OLM, replicating our previous findings (Fig 2F). Wildtype animals with AAV-Baf53b also show long-term ORM; however in the ORM task the Baf53b+/− het mice with AAV-Baf53b fail to show a preference for the novel object (Fig 4E). Given the spatially restricted viral expression in dorsal hippocampus of the Baf53b+/− AAV-Baf53b mice, the failure to rescue a hippocampal independent memory task (ORM) demonstrates specificity for the OLM rescue and not a global change in brain state or processing. Overall, these rescue experiments provide strong evidence that BAF53b plays a critical role in long-term memory formation in the adult animal.
