Study unveils what snails and humans have in common

Forgetful moments don’t only happen in humans, but snails share this common trait with us. Research was done on snails pointing out that newly learned information can only be retold hours later, but are not obtainable directly afterward.

Memory glitches like these also happen in humans, and there’s a chance that we share the same reasons snails do for this glitch, as molecular systems in support of creating new memories in the brain are quite the same for snails as in humans, the Times reports.

The snail study gave the creatures an unknown food, and no more than hours later they realized the new product was made for consumption. However, between 30 minutes and 2 hours after being given the food, they weren’t able to remember what it was, though it was a temporary lapse.

One reason why this happens could be that the mind becomes more fragile when transferring memories from short to long term. During the period of processing time, the information is harder to bring to memory.

"Snails forget what they learnt about food, rather than names at parties, but the underlying molecular processes are the same," said Ildiko Kemenes, a neuroscientist from the University of Sussex, who was in charge of the study. The study has been published in the journal Nature Communications.