Invertebrate Learning and Memory

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 investigationsLinking multidisciplinary approaches allows for full understanding of how molecular changes in neurons and circuits underpin behavioral plasticityEdited work with chapters authored by leaders in the field around the globe – the broadest, most expert coverage availableComprehensive coverage synthesizes widely dispersed research, serving as one-stop shopping for comparative learning and memory researchers

1. Beyond the Cellular Alphabet of Learning and Memory in Invertebrates
2. Action Selection
3. Cognitive Components of Insect Behavior
4. Exploring Brain Connectivity in Insect Model Systems of Learning and Memory
5. ‘Decision Making’ in Larval Drosophila
6. Optophysiological Approaches to Learning and Memory in Drosophila melanogaster
7. Computational Analyses of Learning Networks
8. Issues in Invertebrate Learning Raised by Robot Models
9. Mechanosensory Learning and Memory in Caenorhabditis elegans
10. Molecular and Cellular Circuits Underlying Caenorhabditis elegans Olfactory Plasticity
11. Thermosensory Learning in Caenorhabditis elegans
12. Age-Dependent Modulation of Learning and Memory in Caenorhabditis elegans
13. Salt Chemotaxis Learning in Caenorhabditis elegans
14. A Systems Analysis of Neural Networks Underlying Gastropod Learning and Memory
15. Comparison of Operant and Classical Conditioning of Feeding Behavior in Aplysia
16. Mechanisms of Short-Term and Intermediate-Term Memory in Aplysia
17. Synaptic Mechanisms of Induction and Maintenance of Long-Term Sensitization
18. Roles of Protein Kinase C and Protein Kinase M in Aplysia Learning
19. Multisite Cellular and Synaptic Mechanisms in Hermissenda Pavlovian Conditioning
20. Molecular and Cellular Mechanisms of Classical Conditioning in the Feeding System of Lymnaea
21. Operant Conditioning of Respiration in Lymnaea
22. Associative Memory Mechanisms in Terrestrial Slugs and Snails
23. Observational and Other Types of Learning in Octopus
24. The Neurophysiological Basis of Learning and Memory in Advanced Invertebrates
25. Learning, Memory, and Brain Plasticity in Cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis)
26. A Multidisciplinary Approach to Learning and Memory in the Crab Neohelice (Chasmagnathus) granulata
27. Drosophila Memory Research through Four Eras
28. Visual Learning and Decision Making in Drosophila melanogaster
29. In Search of the Engram in the Honeybee Brain
30. Neural Correlates of Olfactory Learning in the Primary Olfactory Center of the Honeybee Brain
31. Memory Phases and Signaling Cascades in Honeybees
32. Pheromones Acting as Social Signals Modulate Learning in Honeybees
33. Extinction Learning and Memory Formation in the Honeybee
34. Glutamate Neurotransmission and Appetitive Olfactory Conditioning in the Honeybee
35. Cellular Mechanisms of Neuronal Plasticity in the Honeybee Brain
36. Behavioral and Neural Analyses of Punishment Learning in Honeybees
37. Brain Aging and Performance Plasticity in Honeybees
38. Learning and Recognition of Identity in Ants
39. Bounded Plasticity in the Desert Ant’s Navigational Tool Kit
40. Learning and Decision Making in a Social Context
41. Olfactory and Visual Learning in Cockroaches and Crickets