ABSTRACT
Eric Kandel is famous for introducing the humble sea slug Aplysia into neuroscience and using a variety of approaches, from behavioural conditioning to molecular analysis, to show that learning and memory are dependent on the efficacy of synapses that can be modified in many different ways. Kandel, along with several others including Irving Kupfermann, made a slit in Aplysia's neck, enabling the ganglionic nerve pathways to be exposed – following which they were able to stimulate and record from various neurons to mimic the reflex. Kandel suspected the site of memory lay in the synaptic connections between neurons – a theory that at the time was impossible to investigate with cellular recording of the hippocampus. The motor neurons of Aplysia were capable of showing long-lasting changes in neurotransmitter release, sometimes taking place over weeks, especially when the snail had been trained with habituation or classical conditioning regimes.
