We seek to determine reward decision making, outcome evaluations, error signalling and adjustment of response in rats, what is the best way (T-maze, operant tasks, AST)?
Thanks for any information,
Ales
I'm struggling with the same issue, and also I'm starting to get interested in evaluate impulsivity and rats. So far, to evaluate decision making I use an easy test that had been used for decades, called novelty induced hypophagia. It was a test designed to evaluate anxiety, initially, but then other studies have shown that it also respond to antidepressants, and some people interpret the results as changes in impulsivity as well.
The reason for this is the nature of the test: you put your rats on 24h fasting, and then present food for then in an anxiogenic ambient, such as the open field arena, and then assess the latency of these animals to feed. So, you put your animals on a complex situation where many factors play a role. I like this test as a start on a more complete behavioral evaluation, and usually I take the results as changes in decision making, since the animal will have to take a "decision" to feed despite the fact the food is on a dangerous place.
You can also look out the "Go-No Go" task, that is a more difficult and complex test, but seems to be used to determine decision making and impulsivity as well. If I find anything new, I will come back and let you know!
I hope this answer can be of some use to you.
What types of decision making in rats are you interested in? Impulsivity is very different from maze tasks.
Dennis
Dennis Mazur
In our lab we use the Two-Alternative Choice Task (2-ACT) which is an auditory attention paradigm. We have had very good results with this task and we are now using it for in vivo electrophysiology experiments. I strongly recommend it. The training takes less than one month in rats. Here is a reference from our lab, in case you want to know more about this task:
Pérez MÁ, Pérez-Valenzuela C, Rojas-Thomas F, Ahumada J, Fuenzalida M, Dagnino-Subiabre A. 2013. Repeated restraint stress impairs auditory attention and GABAergic synaptic efficacy in the rat auditory cortex. Neuroscience. 246C: 94-107
Most specifically, I am interested in loss aversion and loss chasing in rats.