By Mariel Emrich, Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School

Aplysia Californica

Sea Snails -- specifically Aplysia californica -- are helping scientists enhance the memories of people with learning impairments.

Because Applysia's brain has much in common with the human brain, the snails are useful in helping scientists understand how the brain learns as well as how memory storage works. At the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UT Health), neuroscientists, including John H. Byrne, senior author and chair of the Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy at the UT Health Medical School, used this sea snail species to test a new learning strategy, which is designed to help improve memory. They are confident that it will potentially benefit patients who have memory impairments due to aging, strokes, or traumatic brain injuries. This study was published in an issue of Nature Neuroscience online.

The Neuroscientists’ strategy was to identify times when the brain was ready to learn. The learning process is expedited when the brain is primed. When the brain is not mentally ready to learn, the information will not stick with the learner for as long it would if the brain had been ready to absorb new information. Therefore, if people are taught when their brain is prepared to learn, their memory will increase.

In previous studies, researchers have discovered proteins that link to memory. Therefore, investigators at UT Health are working to create a mathematical model that tells them when protein activity is aligned for the best learning experience. For now, the schedule of learning is based on trial and error to see what times work, and which don’t. If this model is proven to be effective, it could potentially be used to identify specific periods when learning potential is the highest.

Byrne said in a statement:

When you give a training session, you are starting several different chemical reactions. If you give another session, you get additional effects. The idea is to get the sessions in sync. We have developed a way to adjust the training sessions so they are tuned to the dynamics of the biochemical processes.

The neuroscientist tested two groups of snails. Each snail received five different learning sessions. One group received learning sessions in regular 20-minute intervals, while the other group received learning sessions at irregular times according to the mathematical model. Five days after the learning sessions were completed, the snails that were scheduled to learn at irregular times had a significant increase in their memory. There was no increase in the memory of the snails who were taught at regular intervals.

Researchers at UT Health analyzed nerve cells in the snail's brains and found greater activity in the snails on the irregular interval schedule. This suggests that if humans are taught at irregular intervals, when their brain is ready to learn, they could experience an increase in memory.

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Mariel is currently a sophomore at Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School in New York City. She loves learning about science and particularly enjoys genetics, cancer research, radiology, and forensics.

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