Chocolate Improves Memory…In Snails!

In the category of “weird news of the day,” it turns out thatscientists have discovered a way to study the impact of dark chocolateon memory skills. But not the memory skills of humans, many of whom wouldcrawl on all fours to be chosen to eat chocolate for the advancement ofscience. No,the participants selected for this particular study were actually snails.

Researcher submerged snails for 30 minutes in either regular water, orwater containing epicatechin, a flavonoid found in cocoa. Whenever thesnails extended their breathing tubes, researchers poked them with a stick.The lead study author, Ken Lukowiak, Ph.D, compared it to tapping a sleepystudent on the nose every time he yawned in class—eventually thestudent would remember not to yawn. Would the snails do the same?

Snails in “regular” water remembered the lesson for about threehours. Snails in the “chocolate” water remembered the lessonfor 24 to 48 hours. According to Lukowiak, that’s huge. “Togo from three hours to 24, you have to have altered gene activity in theneurons that make the memory.”

Luckily for us chocolate-loving humans, there are more pleasant ways toget our flavonoids. We say skip the chocolate bath and go straight forthe Hershey’s.