Caterpillar: Article Analysis

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Nick Amador The scientific article, "Retention of Memory through Metamorphosis: Can a Moth Remember What It Learned As a Caterpillar?" attempts to answer five research questions. I will be covering the following three: "Do larvae learn aversive cues?" "Does aversive behavior persist across larval molts?" and "Does aversive behavior persist through metamorphosis?" No hypotheses were provided, but the experiments were successful in reaching conclusive results. The larval moths (caterpillars) were taught to avoid the odor of the chemical Ethyl Acetate (EA). The methodology for this process was as follows: M. Sexta larvae, which express neither attraction nor aversion toward EA, received a mild electrical shock immediately after they were exposed to the chemical. This produced an aversion toward the EA, as 78% of caterpillars that received the shock showed a preference to ambient air over the EA. The difference between control …show more content…

M. Sexta larvae have five phases of their life, called instars, before they start the process of pupation. 81% of the larvae who were taught to avoid EA during their third instars still showed an aversion to the chemical late in their fifth instars, just before pupation (with a p-value of less than 0.001, showing the difference between the fifth instar caterpillars who received the shock during their third instars and the control caterpillars, in terms of aversion to EA, to be significant.) This data was similar enough to the larvae that were both taught to avoid EA and tested for EA aversion in their fifth instars, that it was safe to assume that the differences in the data were caused by random chance (based on a p-value of 0.74) Therefore, aversive cues and behavior persist across larval molts, and the time between third and fifth instars doesn't show a significant difference in levels of response to

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