Rodent behavioural data and Matlab codes for repeated textured Novel Object Recognition tests (tNORTs)

This study designed repeated tNORTs to investigate whisker sensitivity of rodents. It consisted of 2 sets of tests. (1) Object shape bias tests (OSBTs). (2) tNORTs. Eight rats were used throughout the study. The OSBTs were conducted in 8 days (Test day 1 ~ day 8) using 8 different objects (Object I ~ Object VIII). Each test involved 2 objects of the same shape placed in an arena (positioned at Left and Right). After OSBTs, rats performed five tNORTs (Test 1 ~ Test 5), with different grit-size sandpapers used for each test. The stopping criterion was when rats failed to discriminate different textures in two tests with finer grit sizes. Each tNORT consisted of a sample phase with two objects (L and R) covered by the same sandpaper, and a test phase with two objects covered by the same sandpaper (F) and a novel sandpaper (N). The behaviour of the rat was recorded via a video camera for all tests. The video was analysed using ‘The Observer XT’ from Noldus to find rat exploration times (in seconds) of the Left and the Right objects, or the Familiar and Novel objects. Matlab code used to analyse the data are included with the dataset. Two video files from a tNORT experiment of the sample and test phases, respectively, are also included with the dataset.