Effects of forced-choice runway variations on rats’ T-maze serial pattern learning

Szelest, Izabela; Cohen, Jerome

doi:10.3758/bf03193195

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…Rats have a tendency to alternate their choices in the T-maze [32] , which facilitates learning of the shift-win rule. In contrast, because of this predisposition and, further, because of reinforcement of the alternating behavior, the following rule change requiring the adoption of a stay-win strategy should be challenging, which is exactly what the present experiment revealed.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Selective breeding for endurance running capacity affects cognitive but not motor learning in rats

Wikgren

Mertikas

Raussi

et al. 2012

Physiology & Behavior

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The ability to utilize oxygen has been shown to affect a wide variety of physiological factors often considered beneficial for survival. As the ability to learn can be seen as one of the core factors of survival in mammals, we studied whether selective breeding for endurance running, an indication of aerobic capacity, also has an effect on learning. Rats selectively bred over 23 generations for their ability to perform forced treadmill running were trained in an appetitively motivated discrimination-reversal classical conditioning task, an alternating T-maze task followed by a rule change (from a shift-win to stay-win rule) and motor learning task. In the discrimination-reversal and T-maze tasks, the high-capacity runner (HCR) rats outperformed the low-capacity runner (LCR) rats, most notably in the phases requiring flexible cognition. In the Rotarod (motor-learning) task, the HCR animals were overall more agile but learned at a similar rate with the LCR group as a function of training. We conclude that the intrinsic ability to utilize oxygen is associated especially with tasks requiring plasticity of the brain structures implicated in flexible cognition.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Selective breeding for endurance running capacity affects cognitive but not motor learning in rats

Wikgren

Mertikas

Raussi

et al. 2012

Physiology & Behavior

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“…T-maze tasks have been used extensively to investigate various aspects of brain function, including spatial working memory (Zimmerberg, Sukel & Stekler, 1991; Wan, Pang & Olton, 1994; Nagahara & Handa, 1997), long-term reference memory (Olton & Papas, 1979), perseveration (Riley, Lochry, Shapiro & Baldwin, 1979), and foraging strategy such as the use of “win-shift” versus “win-stay” strategies in response to different reinforcement contingencies (Szelest & Cohen, 2006). Much of this work has been done in rodents, but when scaled appropriately, the T-maze can also be suitable for non-rodent species as well, including the ferret (Park & Baum, 1999), cat (Burgess, Villablanca, Levine, 1986), squirrel monkey (Peretti & Baird, 1976), horse (Heird, Lennon & Bell, 1981), goat and sheep (Hosoi, Swift, Rittenhouse & Richards, 1995).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

T‐maze learning in weanling lambs

Johnson

Stanton

Goodlett

et al. 2011

Developmental Psychobiology

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A major advantage of sheep models in experimental studies of neurodevelopmental disorders (e.g., with prenatal neurotoxicant exposure) is that the equivalent of all three trimesters of human brain development occurs in sheep entirely in utero. However, studies of learning and memory in sheep are limited. The goal of this study was to extend the analysis of spatial learning and memory in adolescent sheep using several traditional T-maze tasks. Both 9- and 14-week-old lambs acquired a delayed non-matching to place task, but the older lambs learned the task significantly faster. In contrast, acquisition of a matching to place task was significantly more difficult. Lambs, like rodents, appear to have a predisposition toward learning “win-shift” spatial problems in a T-maze under appetitive motivation. Lambs also rapidly acquired a position habit and showed typical reversal learning curves. These findings support the use of T-maze tasks to assess behavioral outcomes in various sheep models.

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Rats’ anticipation of current and future trial outcomes in the ordered RNR/RNN serial pattern task

Cohen

Mohamoud

Szelest

et al. 2008

Learning and Motivation

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Effects of forced-choice runway variations on rats’ T-maze serial pattern learning

Cited by 4 publications

References 25 publications

Selective breeding for endurance running capacity affects cognitive but not motor learning in rats

Selective breeding for endurance running capacity affects cognitive but not motor learning in rats

T‐maze learning in weanling lambs

Rats’ anticipation of current and future trial outcomes in the ordered RNR/RNN serial pattern task

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