Bilateral vestibular deafferentation causes deficits in a 5-choice serial reaction time task in rats.
Peripheral lesions of the vestibular system have been associated with spatial memory deficits in animals and humans; however, no study to date has investigated the effects of such lesions on attention. In this study, we used a 5-choice serial reaction time task (5-CSRTT) to determine whether rats with bilateral vestibular deafferentation (BVD) had attention deficits at 5 months post-op. compared to sham controls. We found that BVD rats took longer than sham animals to reach the designated criterion of >70% correct responses (P=0.006), they made significantly fewer correct responses (P=0.005), and significantly more incorrect responses (P=0.000), while showing no difference in omissions and premature responses and a significant decrease in perseverative responses (P=0.03). BVD rats also responded with a significantly shorter response latency, whether their response was correct (P=0.001) or incorrect (P=0.002), and obtained their reward for a correct response more quickly (P=0.000). These results suggest that rats with bilateral vestibular loss exhibit deficits on a 5-CSRTT that cannot be explained by an inability to respond and that their speed of response is altered.
Zheng
Yiwen
Y
Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, School of Medical Sciences, University of Otago Medical School, Dunedin, New Zealand. yiwen.zheng@stonebow.otago.ac.nz
Balabhadrapatruni
Sangeeta
S
Masumura
Chisako
C
Munro
Oliver
O
Darlington
Cynthia L
CL
Smith
Paul F
PF
D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000818:Animals; D003714:Denervation; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology; D007859:Learning Disabilities / Q000209:etiology*; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D012201:Reward; D013997:Time Factors; D014722:Vestibule, Labyrinth / Q000294:innervation / Q000502:physiology*