During an experience, various details like what was seen, smelled, and felt are not stored as a single memory but rather encoded and stored separately in the brain. Recalling a memory involves piecing together these elements, and when this process goes awry or details are altered, false memories can be formed. Recent research indicates that the common cuttlefish may also experience the creation of false memories.
Researchers reported in the journal iScience on July 17 that cuttlefish, like humans, can develop false memories. Christelle Jozet-Alves from the University of Caen in Normandy, France, explained that the cuttlefish reconstruct events by associating different features rather than storing events like a filmstrip.
While cuttlefish have been known to possess episodic-like memory, the mechanisms underlying their ability to recall past events were unclear. Do cuttlefish rely on a reconstructive process for their memories of previous events?
To investigate this, Jozet-Alves and her team conducted experiments to induce false memories in cuttlefish. If these animals depend on reconstruction for their episodic-like memories, they should be susceptible to forming false memories.
The researchers exposed cuttlefish to sequential events with shared features, aiming to make the cuttlefish falsely remember seeing shrimp in a specific tube. By presenting visual patterns and odors associated with shrimp and other stimuli, they tested whether the cuttlefish could form false memories.
The results showed that cuttlefish exhibited altered memories when presented with misleading information about past events, sometimes choosing an empty tube thinking it contained shrimp. This indicated that false memories could be formed for visual information but not scents.
It is suggested that this memory strategy might help cuttlefish optimize memory storage by reconstructing smaller building blocks of memories. This could enable them to imagine different combinations of features in the future. However, the researchers noted variations in susceptibility to forming false memories among individuals.
Jozet-Alves highlighted the importance of further research to explore why different individuals vary in their susceptibility to false memories and how factors like age, attention levels, or emotional states may influence this trait.
