Classical conditioning in earthworms employing an odorous conditioned stimulus

David Reyes-Jiménez; María J F Abad; Concepción Paredes-Olay

doi:10.1016/j.beproc.2019.05.014

Classical conditioning in earthworms employing an odorous conditioned stimulus

Behav Processes. 2019 Jul:164:214-216. doi: 10.1016/j.beproc.2019.05.014. Epub 2019 May 14.

Authors

David Reyes-Jiménez¹, María J F Abad¹, Concepción Paredes-Olay²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychology, Universidad de Jaén, 23071, Jaén, Spain.
² Department of Psychology, Universidad de Jaén, 23071, Jaén, Spain. Electronic address: cparedes@ujaen.es.

PMID: 31100328
DOI: 10.1016/j.beproc.2019.05.014

Abstract

The study of associative learning in invertebrates has become an essential tool for exploring their cognitive abilities and for studying the biological bases of learning and memory. In this experiment with earthworms, we paired a rose odour conditioned stimulus (CS) with a bright light unconditioned stimulus (US). After these pairings, the head retraction response - which is initially elicited by the bright light - is eventually evoked by the rose odour. This is the first demonstration of classical conditioning of an odour in earthworms (vibrations are usually employed as CSs), using a procedure that enables us to rule out an explanation in terms of pseudoconditioning.

Keywords: Classical conditioning; Earthworm; Invertebrates learning.

MeSH terms

Animals
Association Learning / physiology*
Conditioning, Classical*
Cues
Odorants / analysis*
Olfactory Perception
Oligochaeta / physiology*