Long-Term Habituation in the Marine Mollusc<i>Tritonia diomedea</i>

Abstract

Tritonia diomedea is one of several gastropod molluscs used to study cellular mechanisms of learning and memory. Previous studies in this organism have focused on short-term habituation and sensitization. This report presents the first detailed description of long-term habituation in Tritonia. Experimental animals were given 11 swim sessions, each consisting of 10 trials, over 6 days, during which they typically displayed an initial sensitization, followed by short-term, within-session habituation. Responses were compared to controls, which were given a single stimulus per day. Cycle number habituation steadily accumulated over the days of training, and then persisted for at least 2 days after the end of training. These findings will permit comparative studies of the cellular mechanisms of short- and long-term memory in this highly tractable model system.