Angiotensin II enhances long-term memory in the crab Chasmagnathus

An opaque screen moving overhead provokes an escape response in the crab Chasmagnathus granulatus that habituates after a few presentations of the eliciting stimulus. Fifteen trials with a 180-s intertrial interval or 30 trials with a 90-s interval (strong training protocol) ensures long-term habituation (LTH) of the response for 24 h, whereas 10 trials (weak training protocol) fail to induce it. However, robust LTH is obtained when crabs are injected with human angiotensin (AII; 50 pmol) immediately after a weak training protocol. This memory-enhancing effect of AII is dose-dependent, reversible by saralasin (5 pmol), and vanishes either when the weak training protocol is reduced to only five trials, or when the peptide is given before training or 1 h after. LTH is impaired by saralasin (5 pmol) administered before or after the strong training protocol, but no amnestic effect is disclosed when the antagonist is given 1 h after. On the other hand, both AII-like immunoreactivity and angiotensin-converting enzyme-like activity are described in diverse tissues of Chasmagnathus, namely, in gills and in both thoracic and supraesophageal ganglia. Results support the view that some components of the renin-angiotensin system and their influence on memory might have emerged early in evolution. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Inc.