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became curious about how dietary factors might affect memory

Despite his misgivings

decided to concentrate on a group of compounds – the flavonoids – found in a wide range of 'superfoods' including chocolate and green tea, focusing on one particular flavonoid, epicatechin (epi).

figuring out how a single component of chocolate might improve human memory is almost impossible

too many external factors influence memory formation

the pond snail Lymnaea stagnalis, to find out whether the dark chocolate flavonoid could improve their memories

publish their discovery that epi improves the length and strength of snail memories in The Journal of Experimental Biology

molluscs can be trained to remember a simple activity: to keep their breathing tubes (pneumostomes) closed when immersed in deoxygenated water

t pond snails usually breathe through their skins, but when oxygen levels fall, they extend the breathing tube above the surface to supplement the oxygen supply

e snails can be trained to remember to keep the breathing tube closed in deoxygenated water by gently tapping it when they try to open it,

the strength of the memory depends on the training regime.

identified an epi concentration – 15 mg m3 pond water – that didn't affect the snails' behaviour

to be sure that we're not looking at wired animals

ested the molluscs' memories. Explaining that a half-hour training session in deoxygenated water allows the snails to form intermediate-term memories (lasting less than 3 h) but not long-term memories (lasting 24 h or more)

when Fruson plunged the molluscs into deoxygenated water to tested their memories a day later, they remembered to keep their breathing tubes closed

provided the snails with two training sessions, the animals were able to remember to keep their breathing tubes shut more than 3 days later

boosted the molluscs' memories and extended the duration, but how strong were the epi-memories

memories can be overwritten by another memory

process called extinction

the original memory is not forgotten and if the additional memory is stored weakly

can be lost and the original memory restored

then tried to replace it with a memory where the snails could open their breathing tubes

instead of learning the new memory, the epi-trained snails stubbornly kept their breathing tubes shut. The epi-memory was too strong to be extinguished.

also found that instead of requiring a sensory organ to consolidate the snails' memories – like their memories of predators triggered by smell – epi directly affects the neurons that store the memory

that the cognitive effects of half a bar of dark chocolate could even help your grades: good news for chocoholics the world over.

GLACIER, or General Laboratory Active Cryogenic ISS Experiment Refrigerator, is primarily used to preserve science samples that require temperatures between minus 301 and 39 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 160 and 4 degrees Celsius

The brand of ice cream flying in the Dragon's GLACIER is Blue Bell Creameries, a Texas dairy that has a strong fan base in Houston

Blue Bell ice cream has been flown to the space station before. The creamery's cups first launched to the orbiting laboratory in 2006 on board the space shuttle Atlanti