Since the 1980’s, NECC has developed an international reputation for great expertise in the study of cephalopod learning and memory. Amongst others, NECC demonstrated in collaboration with Cambridge University (UK) that episodic-like memory might exist in adult cuttlefish. Through a young researcher ANR project (ANR COMETT, ending 2022) we are expanding this research to a better understanding of the evolutionary roots of episodic memory, and more widely to what is called « mental time travels » in humans (recall of past events and future planning). In this COMETT project, comparative studies of episodic-like memory and future planning will be led in parallel in cuttlefish and in another cephalopod species, the commun octopus. On a brain standpoint, use of different learning paradigms associated with markers of cell activation will allow us to determine whether reference memory and episodic memory have similar neural bases.
