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Forgetting can be either a source of great frustration or one of great relief, depending on whether the memories in question are relevant to one's immediate goals. Adopting an appropriate strategy or memory mode can help achieve these goals. But do efforts to control memory engender unintended side effects? Presently, we expand on a theoretical perspective of memory control, wherein efforts to suppress episodic encoding or retrieval result in the systemic downregulation of the hippocampal memory system. We review evidence from multiple methodologies, highlighting a non-invasive means of inducing amnesia that casts a shadow over memory for unrelated events. By establishing the causes and consequences of the amnesic side effects associated with memory control, we argue it may be possible to harness hippocampal dynamics to promote more adaptive memory performance in the lab, clinic, and broader context of daily life.

Individuals suffering from inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) experience significantly diminished quality of life. Here, we aim to stimulate the celiac plexus with noninvasive peripheral focused ultrasound (FUS) to modulate the enteric cholinergic antiinflammatory pathway. This approach may have clinical utility as an efficacious IBD treatment given the non-invasive and targeted nature of this therapy. We employed the dextran sodium sulfate (DSS) model of colitis, administering lower (5%) and higher (7%) doses to rats in drinking water. FUS on the celiac plexus administered twice a day for 12 consecutive days to rats with severe IBD improved stool consistency scores from 2.2 ± 1 to 1.0 ± 0.0 with peak efficacy on day 5 and maximum reduction in gross bleeding scores from 1.8 ± 0.8 to 0.8 ± 0.8 on day 6. Similar improvements were seen in animals in the low dose DSS group, who received FUS only once daily for 12 days. Moreover, animals in the high dose DSS group receiving FUS twice daily maintained colon length (17.7 ± 2.5 cm), while rats drinking DSS without FUS exhibited marked damage and shortening of the colon (13.8 ± 0.6 cm) as expected. Inflammatory cytokines such as interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-6, IL-17, tumour necrosis factor-α and interferon-γ were reduced with DSS but coincided with control levels after FUS, which is plausibly due to a loss of colon crypts in the former and healthier crypts in the latter. Lastly, overall, these results suggest non-invasive FUS of peripheral ganglion can deliver precision therapy to improve IBD symptomology.

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While peripheral glucose sensors are known to relay signals of substrate availability to integrative nuclei in the brain, the importance of these pathways in maintaining energy homeostasis and their contribution to disease remain unknown. Herein, we demonstrate that selective activation of the hepatoportal neural plexus via transient peripheral focused ultrasound (pFUS) induces glucose homeostasis in models of well-established insulin resistant diabetes. pFUS modulates sensory projections to the hindbrain and alters hypothalamic concentrations of neurotransmitters that regulate metabolism, resulting in potentiation of hypothalamic insulin signaling, leptin-independent inhibition of the orexigenic neuropeptide Y system, and therapeutic alteration in autonomic output to peripheral effector organs. Multiomic profiling confirms pFUS-induced modifications of key metabolic functions in liver, pancreas, muscle, adipose, kidney, and intestines. Activation of the hepatic nutrient sensing pathway not only restores nervous system coordination of peripheral metabolism in three different species but does so across these organ systems; several of which are current targets of antidiabetic drug classes. These results demonstrate the potential of hepatic pFUS as a novel/non-pharmacologic therapeutic modality to restore glucose homeostasis in metabolic diseases, including type II diabetes.

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