Chocolate Makes Snails Smarter Posted on October 01, 2012 at
02:01:32 pm Despite his misgivings, Lukowiak and Fruson decided
to concentrate on a group of compounds -- the flavonoids --
found in a wide range of 'superfoods' including chocolate and
green tea, focusing on one particular flavonoid, epicatechin
(epi). However, figuring out how a single component of chocolate
might improve human memory is almost impossible -- too many
external factors influence memory formation -- so Lukowiak
turned to his favourite animal, the pond snail Lymnaea
stagnalis, to find out whether the dark chocolate flavonoid
could improve their memories. They recently published their
discovery that epi improves the length and strength of snail
memories in The Journal of Experimental Biology. -ADVERTISEMENT-
According to Lukowiak, the molluscs can be trained to remember a
simple activity: to keep their breathing tubes (pneumostomes)
closed when immersed in deoxygenated water. He explains that
pond snails usually breathe through their sk