Aplysia and memory?

November 28, 2001
From: Jay

I am unfamiliar with sea slugs. I live in Ft.Totten, N.D. [USA]. I would like to know how did Aplysia, the sea slug, help unlock some of the secrets of memory?
Jay

jwoodcrowhill3@hotmail.com

Jay, 2001 (Nov 28) Aplysia and memory?. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/5707

Dear Jay,
Sea Hares [Aplysia spp] have proved particularly useful in brain research because they have a relatively simple, uncomplicated nervous system which is easy to access in the living animals with just minor dissection. Another reason they are so useful is that, as in many primitive sea slugs, the individual nerve cells are very large and brightly coloured. The 'brain' is also split up into 11 parts (ganglia) which are separated from each other by nerve cords. This means that individual cells can be mapped, and their functions isolated. All this make them particularly useful for brain research. In the 1970s Dr Eric Kandel began studying the nervous system of Aplysia as a way to understanding more complex brains. For his pioneering work he was recently honoured with a Nobel Prize.

Have a look at The Aplysia Hometank at http://ganglion.med.cornell.edu/

If you want further background information have a look at Kandel's two books which are important resources both for physiologists and biologists:
• Kandel,ER (1979): Behavioural Biology of Aplysia. San Francisco, W.H.Freeman & Co. 463pp.
• Kandel,ER (1976): Cellular Basis of Behaviour. An introduction to behavioural neurobiology. W.H.Freeman & Co., San Francisco. 727 pages.

Another site on studies on mollusc brains and behaviour is Rhanor Gillette's site Slug City, Molluscs, Brain & Behaviour which is under development at http://www.life.uiuc.edu/r-gillette/.

Best wishes,
Bill Rudman.

Rudman, W.B., 2001 (Nov 28). Comment on Aplysia and memory? by Jay. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/5707

Factsheet

What are Sea Hares?

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