[Cellular mechanisms of behavioural plasticity in simple nervous systems]

In the present study, we will try to single out several principles of the nervous system functioning essential for describing the mechanisms of learning and memory, basing on our own experimental investigation of cellular mechanisms of memory in the nervous system of gastropod molluscs and literature data as follows: (1) Main changes in functioning due to learning occur in the interneurons; (2) Due to learning some synaptic inputs of command neurons selectively change its effectivity; (3) Reinforcement is not related to activity of the neural chain receptor-sensory neuron-interneuron-motoneuron-effector; reinforcement is mediated via activity of modulatory neurons, and in some cases can be exerted by a single neuron; (4) Activity of modulatory neurons is necessary for development of plastic modifications of behaviour (including associative), but is not needed for recall of conditioned responses. At the same time, the modulatory neurons (in fact they constitute a neural reinforcement system) are necessary for recall of context associative memory; (5) Changes due to learning occur at least in two independent loci in the nervous system.