Although dark chocolate is not a common ingredient in the diet of snails, perhaps it should start to be. Especially after researchers from the University of Calgary (Canada) have shown thatthe epicatechin contained in this food improves the memory of snails of the species Lymnaea stagnalis.
Lee Fruson and Ken Lukowiak decided to launch the experiment to check whether the flavonoids contained in many of the so-called“superfoods”Most notably chocolate and green tea, they actually have some effect on the brain. In this way, they discovered that if the mollusks were trained to remember a simple activity after giving them a dose of the epicatechin contained in dark chocolate, they were able to remember a task for longer – more than 3 days, compared to 3 hours. that the memory lasted without consuming epicatechin- and that his memory was more intense.
According to the researchers,epicatechin directly affects the neurons responsible for storing information in memory. And, after consuming it, the memory formed in the snails is not erased even if you try to train them for another task in order to create a new memory that, in theory, should erase the previous one by a process known as “extinction “.
“The cognitive effects of half a bar of dark chocolate can even improve any student’s grades“, Lukowiak, who has published the results of his work in the magazine, emphatically concludesThe Journal of Experimental Biology.
