Oh, for those days of 2007, when the miracle vegetable story of the week - maybe the year - was instead about the super powers of chocolate.

The science underpinning those claims was sparse but the usually-reputable AAAS even had an entire panel on it at its annual meeting, populated by only one researcher who was not funded by the Mars chocolate empire.

Still, long after the hype had died and people had moved onto acai berries and other wonder foods, researcher have still examined flavonoids, and most recently one in particular that is in chocolate, Epicatechin (epi). Figuring out how a single component of chocolate might improve human memory is almost impossible. There are too many external factors that influence complex human memory formation; so many that even the most woo science writers can't even find a way to say one political party has more flavonoids than another. Instead, researchers used something simpler, the pond snail Lymnaea stagnalis.

The molluscs can be trained to remember a simple activity: to keep their breathing tubes (pneumostomes) closed when immersed in deoxygenated water.  Pond snails usually breathe through their skins, but when oxygen levels fall, they extend the breathing tube above the surface to supplement the oxygen supply. However, the snails can be trained to remember to keep the breathing tube closed in deoxygenated water by gently tapping it when they try to open it, and the strength of the memory depends on the training regime.

First, University of Calgary undergraduate Lee Fruson identified an epi concentration – 15 mg m1 pond water – that didn't affect the snails' behavior: "We have to be sure that we're not looking at wired animals," said Ken Lukowiak in a statement. Then, the duo tested the molluscs' memories. Explaining that a half-hour training session in deoxygenated water allows the snails to form intermediate-term memories (lasting less than 3 hours) but not long-term memories (lasting 24 hours or more), Fruson and Lukowiak wondered whether epi would improve the snail's memories, allowing them to form long-term memories after shorter memory training. 

When Fruson plunged the molluscs into deoxygenated water to tested their memories a day later, they remembered to keep their breathing tubes closed. And when the duo provided the snails with two training sessions, the animals were able to remember to keep their breathing tubes shut more than 3 days later. Epi had boosted the molluscs' memories and extended the duration, but how strong were the epi-memories?

Lukowiak explains that memories can be overwritten by another memory in a process called extinction. However, the original memory is not forgotten and if the additional memory is stored weakly, it can be lost and the original memory restored. So, Fruson and Lukowiak decided to find out how strong the epi-boosted memory was by trying to extinguish it. Having trained the snails, the duo then tried to replace it with a memory where the snails could open their breathing tubes. However, instead of learning the new memory, the epi-trained snails stubbornly kept their breathing tubes shut. The epi-memory was too strong to be extinguished.

The duo also found that instead of requiring a sensory organ to consolidate the snails' memories – like their memories of predators triggered by smell – epi directly affects the neurons that store the memory. So, Lukowiak is keen to look directly at the effect that epi has on memory neurons and adds that the cognitive effects of half a bar of dark chocolate could even help your grades: good news for chocoholics the world over.

Published in The Journal of Experimental Biology.