Nitric oxide is involved in appetitive but not aversive olfactory learning in the land mollusk Limax valentianus.
The land slug Limax performs both aversive and appetitive olfactory learning, and we investigated neurotransmitters involved in each type of learning. Slugs were conditioned by presenting a vegetable juice (appetitive conditioning) or a mixture of vegetable juice and quinidine (aversive conditioning), and the latency to reach the juice became shorter (appetitive conditioning) or longer (aversive conditioning) after conditioning. L-NAME injected either before conditioning or testing blocked the reduction in latency in appetitive conditioning but had no significant effects in aversive conditioning. 5,7-dihydroxytryptamine had no significant effects in appetitive conditioning. These results suggest different mechanisms for appetitive and aversive learning.
Yabumoto
Taiki
T
Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan.
Takanashi
Fumihito
F
Kirino
Yutaka
Y
Watanabe
Satoshi
S
D000818:Animals; D001070:Appetitive Behavior / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D001362:Avoidance Learning / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D008974:Mollusca / Q000502:physiology*; D019331:NG-Nitroarginine Methyl Ester / Q000494:pharmacology; D009569:Nitric Oxide / Q000502:physiology*; D011802:Quinidine; D012903:Smell / Q000502:physiology*; D014675:Vegetables
D009569:Nitric Oxide; D011802:Quinidine; D019331:NG-Nitroarginine Methyl Ester