Task 13: Do slugs have memories? Kandel 's nobel prize
Kandel's nobel prize
...Kandel taught the sea slug to also pull back its gills when given a mild shock by pairing the shock with a touch on the back. After remembering a few such pairings, the animal learned to retract its gills just in response to the shock without the touch. Kandel then zeroed in on what happened in the junctures between the nerve cells controlling gill retraction when this learning took place. At the time, it was known that nerve cells communicate with each other by passing electrical signals between them at critical junctures called synapses. Kandel discovered that the sea slug’s short-term memory of the shocks, which formed right after it was first shocked, was linked to stronger electrical signaling in the synapses between nerve cells. Such stronger signaling was enabled by minor changes to preexisting proteins in the nerve cells’ synapses. But the slug’s long-term memory, which formed after repeated shock and touch pairings and lasted for weeks, were linked to the production of new proteins that caused more synapses to sprout between nerve cells. These proteins provided a physical bridge for a fleeting memory to enter long-term storage in the brain. Kandel discovered one protein, abbreviated CREB, ...
See the complete article here:
http://science.education.nih.gov/animalresearch.nsf/Story1/Giant+Sea+Slug+and+Molecules+of+Memory
Read the complete article.
Now answer the following question:
Kandel's slug experiment was similar to a classical conditioning experiment? (true or false)
Kandel discoved a protein, 'CREB', which was a catalyst for long term memories? (true or false)
...Kandel taught the sea slug to also pull back its gills when given a mild shock by pairing the shock with a touch on the back. After remembering a few such pairings, the animal learned to retract its gills just in response to the shock without the touch. Kandel then zeroed in on what happened in the junctures between the nerve cells controlling gill retraction when this learning took place. At the time, it was known that nerve cells communicate with each other by passing electrical signals between them at critical junctures called synapses. Kandel discovered that the sea slug’s short-term memory of the shocks, which formed right after it was first shocked, was linked to stronger electrical signaling in the synapses between nerve cells. Such stronger signaling was enabled by minor changes to preexisting proteins in the nerve cells’ synapses. But the slug’s long-term memory, which formed after repeated shock and touch pairings and lasted for weeks, were linked to the production of new proteins that caused more synapses to sprout between nerve cells. These proteins provided a physical bridge for a fleeting memory to enter long-term storage in the brain. Kandel discovered one protein, abbreviated CREB, ...
See the complete article here:
http://science.education.nih.gov/animalresearch.nsf/Story1/Giant+Sea+Slug+and+Molecules+of+Memory
Read the complete article.
Now answer the following question:
Kandel's slug experiment was similar to a classical conditioning experiment? (true or false)
Kandel discoved a protein, 'CREB', which was a catalyst for long term memories? (true or false)