Context shift and protein synthesis inhibition disrupt long-term habituation after spaced, but not massed, training in the crab Chasmagnathus.
An opaque screen moving overhead elicits an escape response in the crab Chasmagnathus that after a few presentations habituates for a long period (long-term habituation, LTH). Previous results suggested that spaced (15 trials separated by 171 s) and massed training (300 trials without rest interval) were correlated with two different memory components of LTH. The present experiments were aimed at further studying the mechanisms subserving these components. Results indicate that LTH acquired by spaced but not by massed training is blocked either by a training-to-testing context shift or by cycloheximide (15-25 microg) pre- or posttraining injection and that LTH after spaced training persists for longer time (5 days) than after massed training (2 days). A model based on these results that distinguishes two LTH-memory components is proposed: a (context-signal) LTH yielded by spaced training, dependent of context, sensitive to cycloheximide (CYX), and long lasting; and a (signal) LTH yielded by massed training, dependent only on the signal invariance, insensitive to CYX, and shorter lasting.
Hermitte
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Laboratorio de Fisiologia del Comportamiento Animal, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Departamento Biologia, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, (1428), Argentina.
Pedreira
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ME
Tomsic
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D
Maldonado
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H
D000818:Animals; D001245:Association Learning / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D003386:Brachyura / Q000502:physiology*; D003214:Conditioning, Classical / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D003513:Cycloheximide / Q000494:pharmacology; D004924:Escape Reaction / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D006185:Habituation, Psychophysiologic / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D017774:Long-Term Potentiation / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D011500:Protein Synthesis Inhibitors / Q000494:pharmacology; D012153:Retention, Psychology / Q000502:physiology*
D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins; D011500:Protein Synthesis Inhibitors; D003513:Cycloheximide