High voltage with little current as an unconditional stimulus for taste avoidance conditioning in Lymnaea stagnalis

A new and better taste avoidance conditioning paradigm for Lymnaea has been developed that replaces the previously used tactile unconditional stimulus (US) with an brief electrical stimulus (1000 V, 80 μA), while continuing to use a sucrose application to the lips as the conditional stimulus (CS). With 15 paired CS-US presentations on a single day, we were able to elicit both short-term memory (STM) and long-term memory (LTM). The LTM persisted for at least one week. While STM was elicited with 5, 8, or 10 paired presentations of the CS-US on a single day, LTM was not. The new US used here was more consistent than the previously used US, and this stimulus consistency may explain why 15 paired CS-US presentations now result in LTM formation.