COLD SHOCK BEFORE ASSOCIATIVE CONDITIONING BLOCKS MEMORY RETRIEVAL, BUT COLD SHOCK AFTER CONDITIONING BLOCKS MEMORY RETENTION IN CAENORHABDITIS-ELEGANS

The effects of cooling on associative learning and memory processes in Caenorhabditis elegans were investigated by giving the worms cold sho ck at various times before or after conditioning. A pretraining cold s hock in the 30 min immediately before conditioning and a postraining c old shock in the 30 min immediately after conditioning both disrupted learning and memory processes tested a short time after conditioning. However, if tested 3 hr after conditioning, worms given a pretraining cold shock demonstrated learned preferences, whereas worms given a pos ttraining cold shock still had memory deficits. These results suggest that the effects of cold shock on associative learning and memory can be dissociated into effects on memory retrieval and memory retention.