How smart are snails?

How smart snails are is a very difficult question because snails, like humans, excel at some tasks but not others according to a new study published in the journal Scientific Reports.

It is difficult to judge whether a person is smart when this person is good at somethings while bad at other things, isn't it? Likewise, it is difficult to judge whether a snail is smart for the very same reason.

In this research, snails were trained in three ways. Firstly, they were taught to associate food taste, in this case carrot, with a bad chemical taste. Secondly they associated a neutral smell, for snails this is the smell of pear drops, with a good food taste. Thirdly they were taught to associate trying to breathe at the water surface with being poked – considered by snails to be a predator threat.

The research found snails that were good at one type of food memory were also good at the other type of food memory. If they were good at forming food memories, however, they were very bad at remembering about predator threat.

Doesn't it just sound like yourself or your friends at school? You may be good at maths and physics (science subjects), however, you are very bad at PE or art? ;-)

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