Incidental temporal binding in rats: A novel behavioral task

0573318 - FGÚ 2024 RIV US eng J - Journal Article
Radostová, Dominika - Kunčická, Daniela - Krajčovič, Branislav - Hejtmánek, Lukáš - Petrásek, Tomáš - Svoboda, Jan - Stuchlík, Aleš - Brožka, Hana
Incidental temporal binding in rats: A novel behavioral task.
PLoS ONE. Roč. 18, č. 6 (2023), č. článku e0274437. ISSN 1932-6203. E-ISSN 1932-6203
R&D Projects: GA ČR(CZ) GA20-00939S
Institutional support: RVO:67985823
Keywords : OTTER * memory * animal behavior * learning
OECD category: Neurosciences (including psychophysiology
Impact factor: 3.7, year: 2022
Method of publishing: Open access
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0274437

We designed a behavioral task called One-Trial Trace Escape Reaction (OTTER), in which rats incidentally associate two temporally discontinuous stimuli: a neutral acoustic cue (CS) with an aversive stimulus (US) which occurs two seconds later (CS-2s-US sequence). Rats are first habituated to two similar environmental contexts (A and B), each consisting of an interconnected dark and light chamber. Next, rats experience the CS-2s-US sequence in the dark chamber of one of the contexts (either A or B), the US is terminated immediately after a rat escapes into the light chamber. The CS-2s-US sequence is presented only once to ensure the incidental acquisition of the association. The recall is tested 24 h later when rats are presented with only the CS in the alternate context (B or A), and their behavioral response is observed. Our results show that 59% of the rats responded to the CS by escaping to the light chamber, although they experienced only one CS-2s-US pairing. The OTTER task offers a flexible high throughput tool to study memory acquired incidentally after a single experience. Incidental one-trial acquisition of association between temporally discontinuous events may be one of the essential components of episodic memory formation.
Permanent Link: https://hdl.handle.net/11104/0343784