Download Free Invertebrate Learning Book in PDF and EPUB Free Download. You can read online Invertebrate Learning and write the review.

Understanding how memories are induced and maintained is one of the major outstanding questions in modern neuroscience. This is difficult to address in the mammalian brain due to its enormous complexity, and invertebrates offer major advantages for learning and memory studies because of their relative simplicity. Many important discoveries made in invertebrates have been found to be generally applicable to higher organisms, and the overarching theme of the proposed will be to integrate information from different levels of neural organization to help generate a complete account of learning and memory. Edited by two leaders in the field, Invertebrate Learning and Memory will offer a current and comprehensive review, with chapters authored by experts in each topic. The volume will take a multidisciplinary approach, exploring behavioral, cellular, genetic, molecular, and computational investigations of memory. Coverage will include comparative cognition at the behavioral and mechanistic level, developments in concepts and methodologies that will underlie future advancements, and mechanistic examples from the most important vertebrate systems (nematodes, molluscs, and insects). Neuroscience researchers and graduate students with an interest in the neural control of cognitive behavior will benefit, as will as will those in the field of invertebrate learning. Presents an overview of invertebrate studies at the molecular / cellular / neural levels and correlates findings to mammalian behavioral investigations Linking multidisciplinary approaches allows for full understanding of how molecular changes in neurons and circuits underpin behavioral plasticity Edited work with chapters authored by leaders in the field around the globe – the broadest, most expert coverage available Comprehensive coverage synthesizes widely dispersed research, serving as one-stop shopping for comparative learning and memory researchers
Since the publication of the second volume of Comparative Psychology by Warden, Warner, and Jenkins (1940), there has not been a comprehensive review of invertebrate learning capacities. Some high-quality reviews have appeared in various journals, texts, and symposia, but they have been, of necessity, incomplete and selective either in terms of the phyla covered or the phenomena which were reviewed. Although this lack has served as a stimulus for the present series, the primary justification is to be found in the resurgence of theoretical and empirical interests in learning capacities and mechanisms in simpler systems of widely different phylogenetic origin. Intensive research on the physiological basis of learning and memory clearly entails exploration of the correlations between levels of nervous system organization and be havioral plasticity. Furthermore, the presence of structural-functional differ entiation in ganglionated systems, the existence of giant, easily identifiable cells, and the reduced complexity of structure and behavior repertoires are among the advantages of the "simple systems" strategy which have caused many neuroscientists to abandon their cats, rats, and monkeys in favor of mollusks, leeches, planaria, crayfish, protozoa, and other invertebrate preparations. Behavioral research continues to reveal remarkable capacities in these simple organisms and encourages us to believe that the confluence of the invertebrate learning data with the more voluminous vertebrate litera ture will contribute substantially to the enrichment of all of the neurobe havioral sciences.
A robot that senses and interacts autonomously with the real world can be used to embody specific hypotheses about the mechanisms of learning in invertebrates. Several models of olfactory learning circuits in the mushroom body of flies have been proposed. To use this to control a robot, it is crucial to understand not only when and how changes in synaptic strength occur but also how those synaptic changes fit within a circuit that produces ongoing behavior. Considering this problem from a robotic perspective reveals some conflicting assumptions made in current research that need to be resolved.
Understanding how network mechanisms contribute to behavioral plasticity is a key objective in learning and memory studies. This is likely to be complex because the different types of synaptic and nonsynaptic (cellular and neuronal) changes that underlie memory are known to occur at multiple locations within the neural network. Determining how these multiple changes are integrated to generate network correlates of learning is the major goal of a systems analysis. Gastropod mollusks offer the advantage that behavioral plasticity can be directly linked to network and the cellular analysis of learning because of the ability to identify individual neurons and determine their synaptic connectivity. Important progress has been made in understanding the synaptic and nonsynaptic contributions to network changes underlying simple forms of nonassociative (habituation and sensitization) and associative (classical and operant conditioning) learning and, to a lesser extent, more complex types of behavior such as second-order conditioning.
The behavioral phenomenon of extinction resembles the decrease of a conditioned behavior when animals experience the presentation of a previously reinforced stimulus. In honeybees, extinction is studied in an appetitive learning paradigm, the olfactory conditioning of the proboscis extension response. Here, I describe recent work on extinction in honeybees (Apis mellifera) and its underlying molecular mechanisms. I demonstrate that extinction in honeybees shares behavioral and molecular similarities with extinction in vertebrates, and I discuss whether these similarities might indicate that extinction is a phylogenetically old mechanism.
Individual recognition is often considered a cognitively challenging form of recognition because it requires flexible learning and memory. Because Polistes paper wasps are one of the few invertebrates known to have individual recognition, they provide a good model for exploring how individual recognition shapes cognitive evolution. Here, we review previous work on individual recognition in paper wasps with a particular focus on learning and memory. In this review, we (1) explore the evolution of individual recognition in paper wasps, including the selective pressures thought to shape the origin and maintenance of individual recognition; (2) discuss the extent of memory for specific individuals during paper wasp social interactions; (3) describe a negative reinforcement training method that can be used for comparative learning research in wasps and other invertebrates; and (4) explain how individual recognition has shaped the evolution of specialized visual learning in paper wasps.
Studies on learning and memory in honeybees have been historically framed in an appetitive context because bees learn remarkably well about sensory stimuli if these are associated with food. We review studies in which bees learn about olfactory stimuli associated with the noxious stimulation of an electric shock. In response to such stimulation, bees exhibit a sting extension response (SER). Pairing a neutral odor with shock results in associative learning so that bees exhibit conditioned SER to the originally neutral stimulus and avoid afterwards that stimulus when given the possibility of moving away from it. SER conditioning leads to long-term memory formation, which depends on transcription and translation. Aversive reinforcement properties are mediated by dopamine, and a rich network of dopaminergic neurons exists in the bee brain. Taken together, these studies open new research avenues to understand how bees learn about aversive events in their environment.
Aversive learning in young worker honeybees (Apis mellifera) can be suppressed by pheromone released by the queen bee. In addition, studies have shown that pheromone released by guard bees inhibits appetitive learning in bees recruited for colony defense. In this chapter, we examine the chemical signals that mediate these effects and the mechanisms that support pheromone modulation of learning behavior in the bee. We also consider the possible adaptive value of pheromone modulation of learning in the honeybee and its potential contribution to the survival of the colony as a whole.