An automated home-cage-based 5-choice serial reaction time task for rapid assessment of attention and impulsivity in rats

Abstract

Rationale The 5-choice serial reaction time task (5-CSRTT) is a widely used operant task for measuring attention and motor impulsivity in rodents. Training animals in this task requires an extensive period of daily operant sessions. Recently, a self-paced, automated version of this task has been developed for mice, which substantially reduces training time. Whether a similar approach is effective for rats is currently unknown. Objective Here, we tested whether attention and impulsivity can be assessed in rats with a self-paced version of the 5-CSRTT. Methods Operant boxes were connected to home-cages with tunnels. Two groups of rats self-paced their training by means of an automated script. The first group of animals was allowed unlimited access (UA) to start trials in the task; for the second group, trial availability was restricted to the first 2.5 h of the dark cycle (TR). Task parameter manipulations, such as variable inter-trial intervals and stimulus durations as well as pharmacological challenges with scopolamine, were tested to validate the task. Results Self-paced training took less than 1 week. Animals in the UA group showed higher levels of omissions compared with the TR group. In both protocols, variable inter-trial intervals increased impulsivity, and variable stimulus durations decreased attentional performance. Scopolamine affected cognitive performance in the TR group only. Conclusions Home-cage-based training of the 5-CSRTT in rats, especially the TR protocol, presents a valid and fast alternative for measuring attention and impulsivity.

Sex-dependent effects of chronic intermittent voluntary alcohol consumption on attentional, not motivational, measures during probabilistic learning and reversal

“…Latency to collect reward along with number of initiated trials are commonly used as a measure of motivation, whereas response latency is often used as a measure of processing or decision-making speed in the Five-Choice Serial Reaction Time Task (5CSRTT) [11][12][13][14][15][16]. Measures of attention vary, but can include number of omissions (i.e., failure to make a response before the end of the trial), as well as percentage of correct responses (i.e., accuracy) [11,13,14,[17][18][19]. Although omissions are thought to be indicative of inattentiveness, one must consider this measure in conjunction with stimulus response and reward collection latencies to rule out processing speed and motivational deficits, respectively, as potential confounds [19,20].…”

Rapid learning of the 5-choice serial reaction time task in an automated rodent training system

“…Another milestone was marked by the Olvecky lab that successfully combined automated training with automated recording in rats 8,10 , while the system was rather specific for that purpose. We have chosen the 5-choice serial reaction type task, a popular rodent paradigm 20,21,38–40 , that has also been the subject of previous automation studies 16,17 . We have built on these earlier works by both providing an affordable, flexible, modular system as well as a systematic comparison with manual training in terms of training efficiency.…”

“…A few automated training systems have been developed for rodent behavioral tasks 8–15 , including 5-choice serial reaction time task (5CSRTT) 16,17 , in order to standardize the training and reduce the effects of human factors and other random variables. While these systems provide means for large capacity automated training of rodents, most of them are customized to train a specific task variant, and/or contain expensive, proprietary components.…”

Bi-directional command of cognitive control by distinct prefrontal cortical output neurons to thalamus and striatum

“…Clozapine-N-Oxide (CNO) elicited membrane potential hyperpolarization, increased rheobase, and decreased spike frequency under current step injections in acute mPFC brain slices of hM4D(Gi)-expressing animals ( Figure S2). We then expressed hM4D(Gi) in each projection population and trained animals in the SP-5-CSRTT (20). Animals could earn food rewards by withholding responses during a delay period until a visual cue appeared randomly in one of five cue holes ( Figure 2B).…”

“…These circuits maintain activity during cognitive control tasks, and are thought to guide correct behavioral output by maintaining a representation of a task rule (13)(14)(15)(16)(17). Likewise, the dorsomedial and ventromedial striatum (DMS/VMS) have both been linked to inhibitory control and attention (18)(19)(20) and receive input from the dmPFC and vmPFC, respectively. Moreover, specific mPFC-DMS projections are linked to development of cognitive control and show ramping during preparatory attention (12,21), whereas mPFC-VMS projections are associated with anticipation and reward processing during cognitive control tasks (11,22,23).…”