Dissociation of food-finding and tentacle-lowering, following food-attraction conditioning in the snail, Helix aspersa.

The assumption that tentacle-lowering and food-finding may be used interchangeably as measures of food-attraction conditioning was examined in the snail, Helix aspersa. A brief pairing of an odor with the opportunity to feed (food-attraction conditioning) resulted in increased tendency to orient to that odor (food-finding), when tested the following day. In addition, conditioned snails exhibited increased levels of tentacle-lowering. A more detailed analysis revealed that a subset of conditioned snails exhibited successful food-finding in the absence of tentacle-lowering, and that another subset of conditioned snails exhibited increased levels of tentacle-lowering in the absence of successful food-finding. These results suggest that caution should be observed when comparing results across these two response systems.