Fight outcome modulates the associative memory in the crab Neohelice granulata.

M JIMENA SANTOS; MERLO SANTIAGO; LAURA KACZER; M.E. PEDREIRA

Mar del Plata

Congreso; XXXII Congreso SAN; 2017

SAN

A new area of study has emerged with the aim of studying the effects induced by social relations in processes such as learning and memory. Cognitive abilities of an animal can not be studied and understood if it is not in function of the ecological pressures that mold its behavior. In this sense, several studies have demonstrated that aversive social events can modulate memory. Recently, we studied the influence of an agonistic encounter on an aversive learning paradigm based on a Contextual Pavlovian Conditioning (CPC) that occurs immediately after a paired fight. Results revealed a differential modulation, losers showed significantly higher memory retention than the respective winners. Thus, we propose that the agonistic experience differently modulated the crabs memory consolidation. Taking this together a new question arises in terms of the physiological mechanisms that are involved. A prior hypothesis is that differential stress levels as a consequence of the fight outcome could be implicated. To address this issue we measured glucose levels, after the fight. We found glucose increase between animals that were involved in an agonistic encounter and control animals. No differences between losers and winners were found. Our ongoing research combines the agonistic encounter with an appetitive paradigm. We expect to determine whether their different memory abilities extend to other types of protocols or are only noticeable feature in the aversive memory.