Learning a non-neutral conditioned stimulus: place preference in the crab Neohelice granulata

Abstract

In the wild, being able to recognize and remember specific locations related to food sources and the associated attributes of landmarks is a cognitive trait important for survival. In the present work we show that the crab Neohelice granulata can be trained to associate a specific environment with an appetitive reward in a conditioned place preference task. After a single training trial, when the crabs were presented with a food pellet in the target quadrant of the training arena, they were able to form a long-term memory related to the event. This memory was evident at least 24 h after training and was protein-synthesis dependent. Importantly, the target area of the arena proved to be a non-neutral environment, given that animals initially avoided the target quadrant. In the present work we introduce for the first time an associative one-trial memory paradigm including a conditioned stimulus with a clear valence performed in a crustacean.