Cuttlefish remember the what, when, and where of meals, even into old age
arstechnica.com
arstechnica.com
TFA briefly mentions the hippocampus owning these kinds of episodic memories in humans although cuttlefish don't have hippocampuses(i?).
It's weird how "embarrassment trauma" memories can last so long and can force that sort of weird ooph sigh every time we recall them.
Perhaps cuttlefish experience every meal as an embarrassing memory. (Kidding but only kind of. The experience of memories is interesting - Radio Lab did a series on it iirc.)
But I can recall my every mortification as if it occurred moments ago. I know this because each evening when I finish reading for the night, I’ll turn off my bedside lamp, roll over onto my side, close my eyes, and my brain will say. “Oh, good evening. Should we play the blooper reel?” And I’ll say, “Ah, you know, I’d really rather not,” and my brain will say, “Excellent. Let’s begin in a high school auditorium outside of San Francisco.”
https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/anthropocene-reviewed/e...
Routine is what kills memory.
But that is not what they test the cutlefish on! They check if they seem to recall foraging patterns. In case of a modern human a foraging pattern would be knowing how to get to a grocery store, select the items you like, perform the higly abstract ritual of “paying at the cashier”, get back home and prepare the food.
Do you have problems finding your regular grocery store? Can you recall your personal preferences as you are staring at the items? Did it ever happen that you went home and couldnt figure out how to prepare what you usually do? If you can pass all of these you would probably also pass the test these cuttlefish passed.
If you also exhibit seasonal patterns in your foraging, like for example preparing a turkey once a year, or going wild for pumpkin spice latte in certain seasons then you are over performing really.
If you have ever drove past a grocery store just to get to your favourite pizza place that shows that you are able to delay your gratification. Heck, even if you just were able to drive home from the grocery store to warm some food up shows that already.
I understand that these all feel flippant, but we didn’t asked the cuttlefish what they had for breakfast. We observed how they behave, how they feed themselves. Most healthy humans would also pass similar observations and tests with flying colours.