A model of associative learning and classical conditioning in Aplysia californica: a preliminary study

A simple invertebrate animal like the marine mollusc Aplysia exhibits an impressive variety of learning behaviour. The underlying biophysical and biochemical cellular mechanism has been for the most part well described by the group of Kandel. The authors propose a mathematical model which applies to the simple circuit of a synapse between three neuronal cells with non-hebbian learning rules and with temporal associations of conditioned and unconditioned stimuli. This model mimics the synaptic plasticity of the sensorimotor synapses responsible for the habituation, sensitization, classical conditioning of gill-withdrawal reflex. The evolution of the neuronal states is described by a set of differential equations for the dynamics of membrane potential, potassium conductance, calcium conductance and calcium concentration in dendritic and assonic regions.