The organization of fear memory involves the participation of multiple brain regions. However, it is largely unknown how fear memory is formed, which circuit pathways are used for “printing” memory engrams across brain regions, and the role of identified brain circuits in memory retrieval. With advanced genetic methods, we combinatorially blocked presynaptic output and manipulated N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) in the basolateral amygdala (BLA) and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) …