Planaria: Interspecific transfer of a conditionability factor through cannibalism

Ragland, Rae S.; Ragland, James B.

doi:10.3758/bf03343051

Cited by 14 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…Learning in a signaled avoidance procedure has been demonstrated in ants (Abramson, unpublished data) and honeybees (Abramson, 1986). It has been less convincingly demonstrated-because of lack of control procedures-in roaches (Chen, Aranda, & Luco, 1970), earthworms (Ray, 1968), and planarians (Ragland & Ragland, 1965). Negative results have been obtained with house flies (Leeming, 1985) and roaches (Pritchatt, 1970).…”

Section: Invertebrate Learningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Signaled Avoidance in the Eye Withdrawal Reflex of the Green Crab

Abramson

Armstrong

Feinman

et al. 1988

J Exper Analysis Behavior

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Learning in a signaled avoidance procedure was studied in the eye withdrawal reflex of the green crab, Carcinus maenas. A puff of air to the eye, which causes eye retraction, was used as the unconditioned stimulus (US). A mild vibration on the carapace, which has no effect on untrained animals, was used as a warning (conditioned) stimulus (CS). Eye withdrawal during the CS led to the omission of the otherwise scheduled US. Acquisition was rapid, reaching about 75% avoidance after 30 trials. Extinction occurred slowly over the course of 40 CS-only trials. Yoked controls did not perform as well. The behavior of experimental animals in the avoidance procedure was found to be essentially identical to the performance of animals subjected to a classical conditioning paradigm in which CS responses had no effect on US presentation. Additional groups of animals were subjected to experiments in which (a) avoidance conditioning (60 trials) was followed by classical conditioning (40 trials) or (b) classical conditioning was followed by avoidance. The behavior of these groups was, again, essentially identical. The results suggest that there may be an underlying Pavlovian mechanism for the learned response, although the contribution of an operant process is not excluded. The results expand the range of invertebrate animals in which fundamental conditioning phenomena can be demonstrated, and may provide a neuronal model for learning in a signaled avoidance procedure.

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Section: Invertebrate Learningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Signaled Avoidance in the Eye Withdrawal Reflex of the Green Crab

Abramson

Armstrong

Feinman

et al. 1988

J Exper Analysis Behavior

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“…Signaled avoidance has been demonstrated in free flying honey bees [12] , green crabs [13] , and earthworms [14] . It has been less convincingly demonstrated because of a lack of control procedures in cockroaches [15] , planarians [16] , and crayfish [17] . Punishment or passive avoidance has been investigated in a number of insects including cockroaches in a yoked-design for leg shock [18] , [19] , ants terminating substrate vibration [20] , honey bees confined to a shuttle box with exposure to formic acid as the aversive stimulus [12] or with harnessed bees using the PER paradigm [21] .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dopamine and Octopamine Influence Avoidance Learning of Honey Bees in a Place Preference Assay

et al. 2011

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Biogenic amines are widely characterized in pathways evaluating reward and punishment, resulting in appropriate aversive or appetitive responses of vertebrates and invertebrates. We utilized the honey bee model and a newly developed spatial avoidance conditioning assay to probe effects of biogenic amines octopamine (OA) and dopamine (DA) on avoidance learning. In this new protocol non-harnessed bees associate a spatial color cue with mild electric shock punishment. After a number of experiences with color and shock the bees no longer enter the compartment associated with punishment. Intrinsic aspects of avoidance conditioning are associated with natural behavior of bees such as punishment (lack of food, explosive pollination mechanisms, danger of predation, heat, etc.) and their association to floral traits or other spatial cues during foraging. The results show that DA reduces the punishment received whereas octopamine OA increases the punishment received. These effects are dose-dependent and specific to the acquisition phase of training. The effects during acquisition are specific as shown in experiments using the antagonists Pimozide and Mianserin for DA and OA receptors, respectively. This study demonstrates the integrative role of biogenic amines in aversive learning in the honey bee as modeled in a novel non-appetitive avoidance learning assay.

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“…The original idea in memory research was that the engram, a hypothetical biophysical or biochemical change occurring when a memory was created, was stored in the synapse (Carney, 2018, p. 1). However, experiments on planaria have shown that memory and learned responses are not stored exclusively in the cranial ganglia because when a planarian is conditioned and then cut transversely, both regenerated sections have equal retention of conditioned behavior, although the tail sections do not contain the original cranial ganglia (Mueller, 2002;Ragland & Ragland, 1965;Shomrat & Levin, 2013;Smalheiser et al, 2001;Walker, 1966;Walker & Milton, 1966). Since both segments equally retain the memory of the original planarian, it suggests that cephalization, or the presence of the sense organs and brain in the head region, is not necessary for memory retention and that memory is not a purely neurological mechanism (Mueller, 2002, pp.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transfer of Conditionability Between Planaria Through DNA and RNA

Schiavoni

Genter

2021

J Stud Res

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This experiment examined whether the transfer of DNA or RNA from conditioned planaria could make the recipients more susceptible to similar conditioning. It has been shown in prior experiments that cephalization is not necessary for memory retention in planaria, so there must be another, non-neural mechanism for memory. Thus, changes in DNA or RNA may be responsible for memory retention, and introducing these changes to naive planaria could transfer the "memory" of the conditioned donor. This study included 3 groups of 11 planaria: the control group, the DNA receival group, and the RNA receival group. After the control group was conditioned, each planarian’s RNA and DNA were extracted and given to its genetically identical counterparts in the DNA and RNA receival groups. The number of trials it took to condition the planaria in each group was measured and compared to see if the transfer of RNA or DNA made the recipients more easily conditionable than the control donor group. The results show that the transfer of RNA and DNA made insignificant changes to the conditionability of recipients. However, further research may be able to identify the location of memory bearing molecules, which, if applied to experiments similar to this one, would ensure that the planaria received a high enough concentration of genetic material for any changes present to make a significant effect.

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Planaria: Interspecific transfer of a conditionability factor through cannibalism

Cited by 14 publications

References 6 publications

Signaled Avoidance in the Eye Withdrawal Reflex of the Green Crab

Signaled Avoidance in the Eye Withdrawal Reflex of the Green Crab

Dopamine and Octopamine Influence Avoidance Learning of Honey Bees in a Place Preference Assay

Transfer of Conditionability Between Planaria Through DNA and RNA

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