brains|Cuttlefish brains have memories that ＂never fade memory|are|have|to|age|with|memory|a

Cuttlefish can remember when and where specific events occurred, and even in the last days of their lives, that memory persists.
The findings, published recently in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, are the first evidence that an animal's memory for specific events does not deteriorate with age.
Researchers from the University of Cambridge in the UK, woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory in the US and the University of Caen in France carried out memory tests on 24 common cuttlefish species.
Half were 10 to 12 months old and not quite mature;
The other half were 22 to 24 months old cuttlefish, equivalent to humans in their 90s.
"Cuttlefish can remember what they ate when and where and use that to guide their future feeding decisions.
Surprisingly, their memory did not decline with age, despite other signs of aging such as loss of muscle function and appetite."
"Said Dr Alexandra Schneier, lead author of the paper from the University's department of Psychology.
As humans age, we gradually lose the ability to remember experiences that happened at a particular time and place -- for example, what we had for dinner last Tuesday.
The decline, called episodic memory, is thought to be caused by a decline in the hippocampus.
However, cuttlefish memory doesn't deteriorate until the last two to three days of their lives.
This is because cuttlefish brain structures involved in learning and memory are "vertical lobes" and do not have a hippocampus, the researchers said.
This could explain why the cuttlefish's episodic memory is not affected by age.
To test the cuttlefish's memory for when and where to get what food, the researchers first trained the fish to approach a specific spot in the tank marked with a black and white flag.
Then, through training, the cuttlefish learned that the two foods they regularly eat were available at certain flag waving locations and after certain time delays.
One of these places serves king shrimp for cuttlefish (a food the cuttlefish doesn't much like).
The other serves live grass shrimp, which they prefer, but only once every three hours.
This process was repeated for four weeks.
In addition, the feeding locations differed from day to day.
All cuttlefish, regardless of age, observed the first appearance of food on each flag and used this to calculate which feeding points were the best for subsequent flag waving.
This suggests that, unlike humans, cuttlefish's episodic memory does not decline with age.
Many older cuttlefish remembered as well or better than their younger counterparts during the test phase.
The researchers think this ability might help wild cuttlefish remember who they've mated with.
Cuttlefish have a short life span -- most are around two years old -- and only breed at the end of their lives.
Researchers believe that remembering where, when and with whom cuttlefish mate helps them reproduce more widely.
【brains|Cuttlefish brains have memories that "never fade】[责任编辑: WPY ]

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