title: Assaying aspects of attention and impulse control in mice using the 5-choice serial reaction time task.
abstract: First developed in the 1980s by Trevor Robbins in Cambridge to investigate attentional function in rats, the 5-choice serial reaction time task involves continuous scanning by the subject across a spatial array of visual stimuli. On detecting a brief stimulus at one of five locations, the subject must make a nose poke in order to collect a reward. The task has also been conducted successfully in several strains of mice, including transgenic models. This unit presents the procedures required to run the task in mice, outlining the expected results at each stage of training and presenting examples of the most common manipulations used to dissociate behavior further.
authors.affiliation: Neurobiology Programme, The Babraham Institute, Cambridge, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Trevor
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Humby
authors.forename: Lawrence
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wilkinson
authors.forename: Gerry
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Dawson
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D002755:Choice Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D003216:Conditioning, Operant / Q000502:physiology; D007175:Impulsive Behavior / Q000503:physiopathology*; D051379:Mice; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology*; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D013997:Time Factors