Evidence map›Paper›PMID 31368766›Full record

ArticleJournal of experimental psychology. Animal learning and cognition2019

Aversive conditioning in the tardigrade, Dactylobiotus dispar.

Sarah Zhou, Joseph P DeFranco, Nicholas T Blaha, Pritty Dwivedy, Ashley Culver, Hinduja Nallamala, Srikanth Chelluri, Theodore C Dumas

Open access · hybridAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Journal of experimental psychology. Animal learning and cognition, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
2citing papers in PubMed
1.1field-weighted citation impact, top 17% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

2 citing papers in PubMed, 5 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. An associative account of collective learning.Royal Society open science · 2025
    Article
  2. Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

8 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.

Sarah ZhouThomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology.
Joseph P DeFrancoInterdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience, Undergraduate Neuroscience Program, George Mason University.
Nicholas T BlahaInterdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience, Undergraduate Neuroscience Program, George Mason University.
Pritty DwivedyInterdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience, Undergraduate Neuroscience Program, George Mason University.
Ashley CulverInterdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience, Undergraduate Neuroscience Program, George Mason University.
Hinduja NallamalaInterdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience, Undergraduate Neuroscience Program, George Mason University.
Srikanth ChelluriThomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology.
Theodore C DumasInterdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience, Undergraduate Neuroscience Program, George Mason University.ORCID 0000-0003-1616-8011
Neuroscience Institute · ITThomas Jefferson School of Law · US

Funding

Postnatal maturation: A model to study hippocampal aging and Alzheimer's diseaseR15AG060461 · NIA · GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY · PI DUMAS, THEODORE C · 2018 to 2018
$471k
Postnatal functional biomarkers of hippocampal integrity in adulthood and agingR15AG045820 · NIA · GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY · PI DUMAS, THEODORE C · 2014 to 2014
$352k
Department of Defense; Office of Naval ResearchGeorge Mason University; Krasnow Institute for Advanced StudyNational Institutes of Health; National Institute of AgingNIA NIH HHS R15 AG045820NIA NIH HHS R15 AG060461
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Defensive responses to threatening events in the environment are displayed by a vast number of animals, both vertebrate and invertebrate. These defensive responses can be associated with salient neutral stimuli that are present along with the threatening stimulus. This is referred to as aversive conditioning. Animals with more simple nervous systems, such as Aplysia, C elegans, and Drosophila, have facilitated identification of some the physiological processes that support aversive conditioning. Perhaps even more basic information regarding the neurobiology of learning and memory may be gleaned from animals that have special characteristics not found in other species. Tardigrades, also known as "water bears," are microscopic eight-legged animals that live in various aquatic and terrestrial environments. They are known for their resilience to extreme conditions because of their ability to enter a cryptobiotic "tun" state during which they turn off their metabolism. Thus, tardigrades present an ideal model to study the metabolic requirements for memory storage. However, there is no prior research on tardigrade learning and memory. The purpose of this study was to demonstrate aversive conditioning in a tardigrade species, Dactylobiotus dispar. Associative learning was confirmed by numerous control conditions (unconditioned stimulus [US] only, conditional stimulus [CS] only, backward pairing, random pairing). Short-term memories were formed after a single pairing of the CS and US. This research introduces an important new animal model to the study of the neurobiology of aversive conditioning with important ramifications for understanding the metabolic influences on learning and memory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Indexed as

AnimalsBehavior, AnimalConditioning, ClassicalMemory, Short-TermModels, AnimalTardigrada

Identifiers

PMID31368766
PMCPMC6776688
OpenAlexW2965482498

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceTDM
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.