Touchscreen Sustained Attention Task (SAT) for Rats

Summary

Sustained attention, or continuously monitoring situations for intermittent and unpredictable events, is a critical aspect of cognition. Here we detail how to test sustained attention in rats using touchscreen operant chambers. We demonstrate comparable performance in male and female rats, making this task useful for studying attention in both sexes.

Abstract

Sustained attention is the ability to monitor intermittent and unpredictable events over a prolonged period of time. This attentional process subserves other aspects of cognition and is disrupted in certain neurodevelopmental, neuropsychiatric, and neurodegenerative disorders. Thus, it is clinically important to identify mechanisms that impair and improve sustained attention. Such mechanisms are often first discovered using rodent models. Therefore, several behavior procedures for testing aspects of sustained attention have been developed for rodents. One, first described by McGaughy and Sarter (1995), called the sustained attention task (SAT), trains rats to distinguish between signal (i.e., brief light presentation) and non-signal trials. The signals are short and thus require careful attention to be perceived. Attentional demands can be increased further by introducing a distractor (e.g., flashing houselight). We have modified this task for touchscreen operant chambers, which are configured with a touchscreen on one wall that can present stimuli and record responses. Here we detail our protocol for SAT in touchscreen chambers. Additionally, we present standard measures of performance in male and female Sprague-Dawley rats. Comparable performance on this task in both sexes highlights its use for attention studies, especially as more researchers are including female rodents in their experimental design. Moreover, the easy implementation of SAT for the increasingly popular touchscreen chambers increases its utility.

Introduction

Disorders ranging from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) to schizophrenia to Alzheimer's disease, share attentional impairments as a feature^1,2,3. Deficits in sustained attention—the ability to monitor continuously a situation for intermittent and unpredictable events—are particularly disruptive, because sustained attention is crucial for selective and divided attention, as well as other cognitive processes^4,5. Even in healthy people, difficulty with sustaining attention negatively affect....

Protocol

All experiments were conducted in accordance with the National Institutes of Health guidelines and were approved by the Temple University Institutional Animal Use and Care Committee. This protocol was developed with adult (~60 days of age when starting the study) male and female Sprague-Dawley rats (Charles River).

1. Materials for Touchscreen SAT

1. Ensure that a sound attenuation cubicle surrounds each touchscreen chamber and that chambers are equipped with a house light, tone generator, camera positioned above the chamber, and a pellet dispenser with feeder reward area (that can be illuminated) on the wall opposite the touchscre....

Results

For most attention studies, rats are trained to criteria on SAT and then manipulations to disrupt or improve attention are performed. Acquisition data is not typically presented, but we do so here to illustrate rates of acquisition in male and female Sprague-Dawley rats. To this end, we quantified the median number of days to reach criteria on SAT (starting on the Nose Poke Phase). Note that a few rats never made it to criteria (n = 5 males, and n = 1 female). The median days that it took.......

Discussion

Deficits in sustained attention are reported in neuropsychiatric, neurodevelopmental, and neurodegenerative disorders^1,2,3, but the processes that contribute to optimal versus disrupted attention are understudied. This is, in part, because specialized equipment limits the easy adaptation of rodent attention tasks. However, touchscreen chambers are addressing this issue by providing the flexibility to run a variety of cognitive t.......

Materials

List of materials used in this article

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
Bussey-Saksida Rat Touch Screen Chambers Easy-Install System	Lafayette Instrument	80604-20	Includes: Touch Screen, Chamber base with perforated floors, Large Feeder Reward Area (44.5 mm wide x 92.5 mm high), Speaker, Houselight, Tone Generator, SAC; Trapezoidal animal working area is 126 mm wide at the Feeder, 240 mm wide and 332 mm deep at the Screen, and 300 mm in height
Sound Attenuation Cubicles (SAC)	Lafayette Instrument	80604-20	Attenuation to approximately 35 dB; 38 kg in weight; External dimensions: 600 mm wide x 670 mm tall x 352 mm deep; Internal dimensions: 540 mm wide x 610 mm tall x 532 mm deep
Abet II Software for Touch Screens	Lafayette Instrument	89505	Version 2.19
Whisker Multimedia	Lafayette Instrument	80698-1	Required for Abet II Touch Operation
Pellet Dispenser	Lafayette Instrument	80209-45	45 mg Interchangeable Pellet Size Wheel
Camera	Lafayette Instrument	80600-CAM	Filtered and focused for IR light
Microsoft Windows	Microsoft		Windows 7-64 bit recommended
Controller PC-Touch Screen Chambers	Lafayette Instrument	88530	Dual Core Pentinum Processor; 2.5 GHz or greater; keyboard, mouse, and monitor; Installed PCI card, cable and expansion; Four RS232 ports; Four VGA ports
Dustless Precision Pellets	BioServe	F0165	45 mg
Black Acrylic Mask	Everything Plastic	Custom Product	Black polycarbonate with one matte finish side, 3.18 mm thick; Central circular opening, 28.58 mm diameter, 107.95 mm from the bottom, centered between the left and right side; Two square response areas, 28.57 mm x 28.57 mm each positioned below and off center, one 85.725 mm from the left and one 85.725 mm from right side, and both 34.925 mm from the bottom.
Utility Cart	Fisher Scientific	11-954-754	30.75 in. x 18.38 in x 33 in
Black towel			Large enough to cover cages for animal transport
Headlights with red lights	Energizer	HDL33A2E	LED white and red light