Learning a non-neutral conditioned stimulus: place preference in the crab Neohelice granulata

KLAPPENBACH, MARTÍN; MEDINA, CANDELA; FREUDENTHAL, RAMIRO

JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL BIOLOGY

COMPANY OF BIOLOGISTS LTD

Año: 2021 vol. 224

0022-0949

In the wild, being able to recognize and remember specific locations related to food sourcesand the associated attributes of landmarks is a cognitive trait important for survival. In thepresent work we show that the crab Neohelice granulata can be trained to associate a specificenvironment with an appetitive reward in a conditioned place preference task. After a singletraining trial, when the crabs were presented with a food pellet in the target quadrant of thetraining arena, they were able to form a long-term memory related to the event. This memorywas evident at least 24 h after training and was protein-synthesis dependent. Importantly, thetarget area of the arena proved to be a non-neutral environment, given that animals initiallyavoided the target quadrant. In the present work we introduce for the first time an associativeone-trial memory paradigm including a conditioned stimulus with a clear valence performed ina crustacean.