The effects of donepezil, an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor, on learning and memory in Camponotus floridanus

Acetylcholine receptors are known to enhance learning and memory encoding (Hasselmo 2006). Acetylcholinesterase inhibitors have been effective treatments for improving a patient’s cognitive abilities with Alzheimer’s Disease by causing an increase in release of acetylcholine (Grossberg 2003). Little research is known about how acetylcholinesterase inhibitors affect ant species. The present study used donepezil, an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor, to understand the effects of learning and memory in Camponotus floridanus ant. This study found that donepezil significantly improved memory halfway in the task (c²=5.12, df=1, p=0.02365), but did not have an effect throughout the entire learning task. This is promising data that may have been limited by the time constraints of this study. Future research may include a longer study period to see if acetylcholinesterase inhibitors can improve learning and memory retention after a specific amount of time or if these inhibitors affect other functions in ants.