But can they learn? My accidental discovery of learning and memory in C. elegans

Abstract

I did not set out to study C. elegans. My undergraduate and graduate training was in Psychology. My postdoctoral work involved studying learning and memory in 1 mm diameter juvenile Aplysia californica. As a starting Assistant Professor when I attempted to continue my studies on Aplysia I encountered barriers to carrying out that work; at about the same time I was introduced to Caenorhabditis elegans and decided to investigate whether they could learn and remember. My laboratory was the first to demonstrate conclusively that C. elegans could learn and in the years since then my lab and many others have demonstrated that C. elegans is capable of a variety of forms of learning and memory.

Keywords:

• Learning
• memory
• habituation
• touch neurons
• tap response
• thermotaxis
• Aplysia californica
• Caenorhabditis elegans

Acknowledgements

None of this could have been achieved without the help of many talented graduate and undergraduate students who have brought their questions, their insights and their curiosity to my lab and propelled the research into new directions. I have had continuous support from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada for this work. Without the amazing worm community’s advice, guidance and resources this work would not have been possible. Specific thanks for comments on this manuscript to Troy McDiarmid, Alex Yu, Lexis Kepler and Joseph Liang.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).