Habituación en la lombriz de tierra

Abstract

Habituation is one of the simplest learning phenomena and whose importance is critical for the survival of organisms. Habituation has occurred in all animal species, both chordates and invertebrates. The importance of the latter lies in their neural simplicity and in the relative ease of studying the neural bases of learning compared to vertebrates. However, the behavioural study of animals would be necessary, reaching a common paradigm that allows the study of the mechanisms involved in habituation. In this thesis we analyse some of the characteristics of the habituation in the earthworm (inter trial interval effect, habituation, spontaneous recovery, generalization) finding evidence of all of them but inter trial interval effect. Finally, the context specificity in a short term habituation was demonstrated employing an odour as context.