Depletion of serotonin selectively impairs short-term memory without affecting long-term memory in odor learning in the terrestrial slug Limax valentianus
Abstract
The terrestrial slug Limax is able to acquire short-term and long-term memories during aversive odor-taste associative learning. We investigated the effect of the selective serotonergic neurotoxin 5,7-dihydroxytryptamine (5,7-DHT) on memory. Behavioral studies indicated that 5,7-DHT impaired short-term memory but not long-term memory. HPLC (high-performance liquid chromatography) analysis revealed that 5,7-DHT significantly reduced serotonin content in the central nervous system. The present study suggests that acquisition, retention, and/or retrieval of short-term memory involves serotonin, and neither acquisition nor retrieval of long-term memory requires serotonin at a level as high as that required for short-term memory.
Footnotes
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↵3 Corresponding author.
↵3 E-mail satoshi{at}mayqueen.f.u-tokyo.ac.jp; fax 81-3-5841-4805.
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Article published online before print. Article and publication date are at http://www.learnmem.org/cgi/doi/10.1101/lm.133906
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- Received November 7, 2005.
- Accepted February 14, 2006.
- Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press