Sensory preconditioning for feeding response in the pond snail, Lymnaea stagnalis.

We demonstrated a sensory preconditioning in the pond snail, Lymnaea stagnalis. An appetitive sucrose solution (a conditioned stimulus: CS1) and weak vibration (another conditioned stimulus: CS2) were first associated, and then the CS2 and an aversive KCl solution (an unconditioned stimulus: UCS) were done. To build the conditioning, two different training procedures, spaced and massed, were examined. After the both training, the sensory preconditioning was built: significantly fewer feeding response to the CS1 became elicited; slower latency to the first bite to the CS1 was induced. No significant differences on the memory retention between these training procedures were found in the sensory preconditioning. Copyright 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.