Comparing memory-forming capabilities between laboratory-reared and wild Lymnaea: learning in the wild, a heritable component of snail memory

We set out to determine whether the ability to form long-term memory (LTM) is influenced by laboratory rearing. We investigated the ability of four populations of Lymnaea stagnalis to form LTM following operant conditioning both in the freely behaving animal and at the electrophysiological level in a neuron, RPeD1, which is a necessary site for LTM. We hypothesized that laboratory rearing results in a decreased ability to form LTM because rearing does not occur in an 'enriched environment'. Of the four populations examined, two were collected in the wild and two were reared in the laboratory-specifically, (1) wild Dutch snails; (2) their laboratory-reared offspring; (3) wild Southern Alberta snails (Belly); and (4) their laboratory-reared offspring. We found that Belly snails had an enhanced capability of forming LTM compared with Dutch laboratory-reared snails. That is, the Belly snails, which are much darker in colour than laboratory-reared snails (i. e. blonds), were 'smarter'. However, when we tested the offspring of Belly snails reared in the laboratory we found that these snails still had the enhanced ability to form LTM, even though they were now just as 'blond' as their laboratory-reared Dutch cousins. Finally, we collected wild Dutch snails, which are also dark, and found that their ability to form LTM was not different to that of their laboratory-reared offspring. Thus, our hypothesis was not proved. Rather, we now hypothesize that there are strain differences between the Belly and Dutch snails, irrespective of whether they are reared in the wild or in the laboratory.