QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s):
Home     Help     Feedback     Subscriptions     Archive     Search     Table of Contents

First published online March 31, 2005
Journal of Experimental Biology 208, 1459-1467 (2005)
Published by The Company of Biologists 2005
doi: 10.1242/jeb.01544

This Article Figures Only Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by McComb, C. Articles by Lukowiak, K. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by McComb, C. Articles by Lukowiak, K.

Juvenile Lymnaea ventilate, learn and remember differently than do adult Lymnaea

Chloe McComb, Nishi Varshney and Ken Lukowiak^*

Calgary Brain Institute, Department of Physiology and Biophysics, University of Calgary, 3330 Hospital Drive NW, Calgary, Alberta T2N 4N1, Canada

^* Author for correspondence (e-mail: lukowiak{at}ucalgary.ca)

Accepted 15 February 2005

Adult snails are capable of learning associatively not to perform aerial respiration and then to consolidate the acquired behaviour into long-term memory (LTM). Juvenile Lymnaea, however, perform aerial respiration significantly less often and the three-neuron circuit that drives this behaviour operates significantly differently than in it does in adults. We asked whether these ontogenic behavioural and neurophysiological differences are manifested as an altered ability of juveniles to learn and/or form LTM. We found that juvenile snails learn significantly less well than adults and are, as a group, incapable of forming LTM. To control for the possibility that the poor learning and inability to form memory were the result of juvenile's receiving on average fewer reinforcing stimuli because they perform aerial respiration less often than adults we subjected juveniles to an enforced period of hypoxia to `motivate' juveniles. Motivated juveniles perform aerial respiration as often as adults; yet these `motivated' juveniles continue to be poor learners and still cannot form LTM. Additionally, a small percentage of juveniles perform aerial respiration as often as adults (i.e. high responders). When these `high-responders were trained they still exhibited poorer learning ability compared with adults and could not form LTM. We conclude that juvenile snails have a more difficult time learning and remembering to suppress aerial respiratory activity than do adults.

Key words: aerial respiration, learning and memory, in vitro semiintact preparation, Lymnaea, operant conditioning, associative learning, long-lasting memory

This article has been cited by other articles:

				K. Lukowiak, K. Martens, D. Rosenegger, K. Browning, P. de Caigny, and M. Orr The perception of stress alters adaptive behaviours in Lymnaea stagnalis J. Exp. Biol., June 1, 2008; 211(11): 1747 - 1756. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				M. V. Orr and K. Lukowiak Electrophysiological and Behavioral Evidence Demonstrating That Predator Detection Alters Adaptive Behaviors in the Snail Lymnaea J. Neurosci., March 12, 2008; 28(11): 2726 - 2734. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				M. V. Orr, M. El-Bekai, M. Lui, K. Watson, and K. Lukowiak Predator detection in Lymnaea stagnalis J. Exp. Biol., December 1, 2007; 210(23): 4150 - 4158. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				R. Sugai, H. Shiga, S. Azami, T. Watanabe, H. Sadamoto, Y. Fujito, K. Lukowiak, and E. Ito Taste discrimination in conditioned taste aversion of the pond snail Lymnaea stagnalis J. Exp. Biol., March 1, 2006; 209(5): 826 - 833. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]