Just got done with my own talk. Not really sure how it was received. People sure did discuss a lot and seemed skeptical. We'll see what comes of it. Now I'm back to sitting in the audience. This time a talk from Avrama Blackwell on classical conditioning in Hermissenda. In this very interesting preparation, the snail is stimulated with a light just prior to turbulence which induces a shortening of the foot of the animal. Pair light and turbulence often enough and the animal will shorten the foot to the light alone. The photoreceptors are the first convergence point of light and turbulence and her talk was all about the subcellular processes mediating learning. The talk contained many data slides both on the biological experiments and on the many computational models.
In this preparation the different currents modified by learning are very well known, as well as the molecular cascades leading to the modification of the currents. The modified currents lead to the photoreceptors being more sensitive to light which eventually leads to the shortening of the foot.