The touchscreen cognitive testing method for rodents: How to get the best out of your rat

Abstract

The touchscreen testing method for rodents is a computer-automated behavioral testing method that allows computer graphic stimuli to be presented to rodents and the rodents to respond to the computer screen via a nose-poke directly to the stimulus. The advantages of this method are numerous; however, a systematic study of the parameters that affect learning has not yet been conducted. We therefore sought to optimize stimuli and task parameters in this method. We found that when parameters were optimized, Lister Hooded rats could learn rapidly using this method, solving a discrimination of two-dimensional stimuli to a level of 80% within five to six sessions lasting ∼30 min each.In a final experiment we tested both male and female rats of the albino Sprague-Dawley strain, which are often assumed to have visual abilities far too poor to be useful for studies of visual cognition. The performance of female Sprague-Dawley rats was indistinguishable from that of their male counterparts. Furthermore, performance of male Sprague-Dawley rats was indistinguishable from that of their Lister Hooded counterparts. Finally, Experiment 5 examined the ability of Lister Hooded rats to learn a discrimination between photographic stimuli. Under conditions in which parameters were optimized, rats were remarkably adept at this discrimination. Taken together, these experiments served to optimize the touchscreen method and have demonstrated its usefulness as a high-throughput method for the cognitive testing of rodents.It is now well understood that the use of animal models is an essential component in our quest to understand the brain mechanisms of cognition. In addition, such models are necessary for researchers to be able to test potential therapeutic agents in a direct and expedient manner that is not possible in human subjects. Moreover, we are experiencing a revolution in the sophistication of transgenic and knock-out animal models that creates opportunities for cognitive testing and therapeutic screening that were until recently, unthinkable (Kobayashi and Chen 2005).To achieve successful translation of findings from animal models to humans, the cognitive tasks we use with our rodents should resemble as closely as possible those used with human subjects. Increasingly, human subjects are tested using computerautomated methods. A particularly powerful approach is the "touchscreen" testing method, in which subjects respond directly to stimuli on a computer screen (e.g., Robbins et al. 1994). The advantages of this method are numerous and include facilitated performance due to contiguity between stimuli and responses and the ability to present a battery of different cognitive tests in which parameters such as stimuli, responses, and feedback are consistent across tasks and conditions.To create a cognitive testing method for rodents that matched, as far as possible, the touchscreen testing method for humans, Bussey et al. (1994Bussey et al. ( , 1997a) (see Fig. 1A) developed the touchscreen testing method for rats, a method which has...

Class I histone deacetylase inhibition ameliorates social cognition and cell adhesion molecule plasticity deficits in a rodent model of autism spectrum disorder

“…The experimental design employed a touch-screen cognitive testing method that was based on previously published work (Bussey et al, 2008). Training and behavioural testing were carried out in a semi-automated testing apparatus constructed by using a modular testing chamber (30 cm long x 24 cm wide x 8 cm high; Med Associates Inc., USA) consisting of a metal frame, clear Perspex walls, and a stainless steel grid floor ( Figure 4A).…”

The rat perirhinal cortex: A review of anatomy, physiology, plasticity, and function

“…rats can competently discriminate between two different photos or two different geometric shapes; Forwood et al, 2007;Bussey et al, 2008). Additionally, the perirhinal cortex has been implicated in the discrimination of complex stimuli; rats with perirhinal lesions showed greater impairments on a visual discrimination task when the stimuli were composed of complex overlapping features (Eacott et al, 2001) and in a configural learning task utilising complex visual-tactile stimuli (Moran and Dalrymple-Alford, 2003).…”

Visual discrimination learning in the fire-bellied toad Bombina orientalis

“…Previous studies of simultaneous visual discriminations involved training sessions with multiple trials during the same day, repeated on different days (Bussey et al, 2008;Colwill et al, 2005;Giachetti et al, 1985;Gonzalez et al, 1967;Nissani et al, 2005;Reiner & Powers, 1983). Amphibians typically have lower energy requirements and feed less often than the animals used in the above learning studies; thus, the toads used here were not given multiple food rewards during one experimental day.…”