UWM Libraries Research and Course Guides: WInSTEP Environmental Health Science Program: Learning and Memory

Student Resources

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2017 NSTA Presentation

2017 NSTA Presentation
A Simple Classroom Test to Assess the Effects of Chemicals on Learning and Memory in Fishes: A Model for Human Environmental Health
Learning Data Sheet

The Effects of Toxic Chemicals on Learning and Memory: Using Fish as a Model for Human Environmental Health

Module: The Effects of Toxic Chemicals on Learning and Memory

Through the study of learning and memory in multiple fish species, students learn the basic concepts and principles of living organisms, including structure and function, regulation and behavior, and populations and ecosystems. Specifically, students use live fish to understand normal learning abilities and explore possible effects of environmental agents on learning. Through an inquiry-based approach, students articulate and refine their own broad questions about learning and memory, and the environmental variables that may affect these processes. Students propose hypotheses that link their personal health to environmental hazards which will ultimately help in personal and social decision-making.

A Video Introduction to the Learning and Memory Module by Dr. Dan Weber
T-maze Experiment Fish 1
Complete video of learning and memory t-maze experiment (control)
T-maze Experiment Fish 2
Complete video of learning and memory t-maze experiment (lead exposed)

Parent/Guardian Letter for the Learning and Memory Module
This letter provides a description of the learning and memory module and the ethical use of animals in the project.

Learning and Memory

Are Our Kids at Risk for Lead Poisoning?
This video can be helpful if a teacher would like to focus on teaching methods to detect Pb poisoning and ways to prevent it. You can skip the into of the speakers (start at 14:20) and end it at 52:30.
Are Our Kids at Risk for Lead Poisoning?
These slides support the video with the same title.
Chronic Exposure to Low Concentration Lead Chloride-Induced Anxiety and Loss of Aggression and Memory in Zebrafish
Lead and lead-derived compounds have been extensively utilized in industry, and their chronic toxicity towards aquatic animals has not been thoroughly addressed at a behavioral level. This study assessed the risk of exposure to lead at a waterborne environmental concentration in adult zebrafish by behavioral and biochemical analyses.
Effects of Alcohol on Inhibitory Avoidance Learning in Zebrafish (Danio rerio)
Zebrafish can be used in studies addressing the effects of drugs on learning, memory, and anxiety. This study investigates the effect of different alcohol treatments (chronic and acute) on the learning and anxiety response of zebrafish in an inhibitory avoidance paradigm.
How Do You Make a Fish Dumber? Take It Out of School
Schools of fish clump together for a very simple reason: safety in numbers. But for some, banding together offers more than just protection. It’s a way of getting to the head of the class. Schooling fish learn from each other, and new research shows that when they’re taken out of their normal social group, individuals struggle to learn on their own.
Isolation Impairs Cognition in a Social Fish
In variable environments, animals can learn to alter their behavior to adjust to changes. Sometimes, however, this learning ability can be impaired. For example, challenges in the social or physical environment can trigger physiological responses that compromise an individual's capacity to learn and these can prevent the animal from modifying its behavior to cope with the altered environment. One such disruption that might affect learning ability is the isolation of an individual that would normally live in a social group.
Long Term Potentiation and Synaptic Plasticity
This video from Khan Academy is about synaptic plasticity and long-term potentiation, the physiological mechanism behind learning.
The Psychology of Learning
Psychologists often define learning as a relatively permanent change in behavior as a result of experience. The psychology of learning focuses on a range of topics related to how people learn and interact with their environments.
Understanding Psychological Perspectives and the Motives Behind Our Actions
A psychological perspective is a way of viewing psychological phenomena, such as behavior. This article explains the different perspectives of psychology and talk about famous psychologists from each point of view.
Update of the Blood Lead Reference Value — United States, 2021
CDC updated the blood lead reference value (BLRV) to 3.5 μg/dL, which provides an opportunity for additional progress in addressing longstanding disparities in lead exposure and blood lead levels in children.
The US Can’t Get Away from Lead’s Toxic Legacy
A prized industrial product since the birth of America, the heavy metal has created a costly, pervasive, and deadly mess.
Your Inner Fish: Your Inner Monkey
From clip 45:55 to the end is an interesting comparison of the fish and human brain.

Additional Articles:

Canasi, JJ et al. Cognitive flexibility and adaptability to environmental changes in dynamic complex problem-solving tasks. Ergonomics, 2003, 46Z:482-501.

Evans, HL et al. Reversal learning tasks may provide rapid determination of cognitive deficits in lead-exposed children. Neurotoxicology and Teratology 16:471-477, 1994.

Gilbert, ME et al. Chronic developmental lead exposure reduces neurogenesis in adult rat hippocampus but does not impair spatial learning. Toxicological Sciences 86:365-374, 2005.

Garavan, H et al. Enduring effects of early lead exposure: evidence for a specific deficit in associative ability. Neurotoxicology and Teratology 22:151-164, 2000.

Morgan, RE Early lead exposure produces lasting changes in sustained attention, response initiation, and reactivity to errors. Neurotoxicology and Teratology 23:519-531, 2001.

Chance Orders of Alternating Stimuli in Visual Discrimination Experiments
This article is for those interested in trying color discrimination rather than left-right for the Learning and Memory module. To avoid actually testing for left vs right, there is a method of randomizing L and R choice called a Gellerman Series. It provides a series of possibilities that can also be linked together that meets specific criteria to ensure that the fish is doing a color vs spatial discrimination when it makes its choice.

Dr. Weber has a series of color panels (blue, red, yellow, black, white) and panels with various patterns, e.g., vertical vs horizontal black and white bars, that can be loaned out as needed for the T-maze.
Chronic Exposure to Low Concentration Lead Chloride-Induced Anxiety and Loss of Aggression and Memory in Zebrafish
This study assessed the risk of exposure to lead at a waterborne environmental concentration in adult zebrafish by behavioral and biochemical analyses.
Environmental Mercury Exposure—A Continuing Challenge
The environment and human health are significantly at risk from mercury (Hg), a naturally occurring heavy metal that is also a very toxic neurotoxin.

WInSTEP Environmental Health Science Program: Learning and Memory

Student Resources

2017 NSTA Presentation

The Effects of Toxic Chemicals on Learning and Memory: Using Fish as a Model for Human Environmental Health

Learning and Memory

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