anudibranchaday:

Aplysia californica (the Californian Sea Hare) is a sea hare (not nudibranch) that has gotten plenty of attention because of a recent neurology study using them as test subjects. While sea slugs have long been used for memory-based studies because of their simple nervous systems, scientist Eric Kandel just managed to prove that by injecting RNA from one sea slug to another he successfully transferred the memory of the first slug.

The experiment was this- scientists poked the tails of multiple Aplysias many times to extend the period of time in which they hold their tails inside of their bodies. After two days of prodding, the sea hares held their tails in for 60 seconds longer than they did at the start. Then, some of the RNA from their nervous system was taken and injected into another group of Aplysia californica who did not get any tail pokes. Even though that group didn’t experience the constant tail prods, they still held their tails in for 40 seconds longer than usual, strongly suggesting the transferred RNA had changed something, memory or not, that made their tail reflex much longer!

Want to know more about this study?

Here’s a Guardian article about it

Here’s a SciShow episode abut it