Attentional performance in a rodent 5-choice serial reaction time task

A five-choice serial reaction time task (5-CSRTT) assesses selective visuospatial attention, impulsivity and motivational processes. In this study, to establish the evaluation for attentional function in rats using the 5-CSRTT, we investigated the environmental factors affecting acquisition processes of attention. At the start of the training, 10-week-old rats trained to nose poke into illuminated holes using a 5-hole operant apparatus, under food restriction. Stimulus duration (one of the 5 hole lights for a fixed interval) was initially set at 30 s and reduced to 0.5 s. Rats were divided into two groups, houselights on (On-group) and off (Off-group) groups during training trial. It took much for the On-group to achieve the criterion in the acquisition of 5-CSRTT, compared with the Off-group. However, premature response (responding to one of the five holes during the inter-trial-interval) in the On-group was significantly lower than that in the Off-group. These findings suggest that acquisition processes of attention could be influenced by environmental conditions including the brightness as visual stimuli.