scholarly journals Reversal learning performance in the XY* mouse model of Klinefelter and Turner Syndromes

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shawn M. Aarde ◽  
Haley Hrncir ◽  
Arthur P. Arnold ◽  
J. David Jentsch
Keyword(s):  
Mouse Model ◽  
Reversal Learning ◽  
Sex Chromosome ◽  
Klinefelter Syndrome ◽  
Learning Task ◽  
Learning Performance ◽  
Adult Mice ◽  
Attentional Dysfunction ◽  
Behavioral Impairments ◽  
Learning Impairment

ABSTRACTKlinefelter syndrome (KS; 47, XXY) and Turner syndrome (TS; 45, XO) are caused by two relatively common sex chromosome aneuploidies. These conditions are associated with an increased odds of neuropsychiatric disorders, including attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), as well as impairments in cognition that include learning delays, attentional dysfunction and impulsivity. We studied cognitive functions in the XY* mouse model, which allows comparison of XXY to XY males (KS model), and XO to XX females (TS model). We evaluated adult mice with and without gonads, using a version of an operant reversal-learning task (RLT) that can be used to measure various facets of learning, impulsivity and attention. In the KS model, only one measure related to impulsivity – perseverative responding under reversal conditions – reliably discriminated gonadally intact XXY and XY mice. In contrast, a fundamental learning impairment (more trials to criterion in acquisition phase) in XXY mice, as compared to XY, was observed in gonadectomized subjects. No other task measures showed differences consistent with KS. In the TS mouse model, XO mice did not show a pattern of results consistent with TS, similar to past observations. Thus, the application of this RLT to these XY* models reveals only limited behavioral impairments relevant to KS.

scholarly journals Cuttlefish exert self-control in a delay of gratification task

2021 ◽  
Vol 288 (1946) ◽  
pp. 20203161
Author(s):  
Alexandra K. Schnell ◽  
Markus Boeckle ◽  
Micaela Rivera ◽  
Nicola S. Clayton ◽  
Roger T. Hanlon
Keyword(s):  
Reversal Learning ◽  
Learning Task ◽  
Delay Of Gratification ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Learning Performance ◽  
Cognitive Tasks ◽  
Delayed Gratification ◽  
Delayed Reward ◽  
Alternative Stimulus

The ability to exert self-control varies within and across taxa. Some species can exert self-control for several seconds whereas others, such as large-brained vertebrates, can tolerate delays of up to several minutes. Advanced self-control has been linked to better performance in cognitive tasks and has been hypothesized to evolve in response to specific socio-ecological pressures. These pressures are difficult to uncouple because previously studied species face similar socio-ecological challenges. Here, we investigate self-control and learning performance in cuttlefish, an invertebrate that is thought to have evolved under partially different pressures to previously studied vertebrates. To test self-control, cuttlefish were presented with a delay maintenance task, which measures an individual's ability to forgo immediate gratification and sustain a delay for a better but delayed reward. Cuttlefish maintained delay durations for up to 50–130 s. To test learning performance, we used a reversal-learning task, whereby cuttlefish were required to learn to associate the reward with one of two stimuli and then subsequently learn to associate the reward with the alternative stimulus. Cuttlefish that delayed gratification for longer had better learning performance. Our results demonstrate that cuttlefish can tolerate delays to obtain food of higher quality comparable to that of some large-brained vertebrates.

scholarly journals Learning and motor inhibitory control in crows and domestic chickens

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (10) ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudia A. F. Wascher ◽  
Katie Allen ◽  
Georgine Szipl
Keyword(s):  
Inhibitory Control ◽  
Reversal Learning ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Cognitive Skills ◽  
Learning Task ◽  
Learning Ability ◽  
Learning Performance ◽  
Learning Criterion ◽  
Behavioural Flexibility ◽  
Learning Experiment

Cognitive abilities allow animals to navigate through complex, fluctuating environments. In the present study, we tested the performance of a captive group of eight crows, Corvus corone and 10 domestic chickens, Gallus gallus domesticus , in the cylinder task, as a test of motor inhibitory control and reversal learning as a measure of learning ability and behavioural flexibility. Four crows and nine chickens completed the cylinder task, eight crows and six chickens completed the reversal learning experiment. Crows performed better in the cylinder task compared with chickens. In the reversal learning experiment, species did not significantly differ in the number of trials until the learning criterion was reached. The performance in the reversal learning experiment did not correlate with performance in the cylinder task in chickens. Our results suggest crows to possess better motor inhibitory control compared with chickens. By contrast, learning performance in a reversal learning task did not differ between the species, indicating similar levels of behavioural flexibility. Interestingly, we describe notable individual differences in performance. We stress the importance not only to compare cognitive performance between species but also between individuals of the same species when investigating the evolution of cognitive skills.

scholarly journals Reversal Learning Performance in the XY∗ Mouse Model of Klinefelter and Turner Syndromes

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shawn M. Aarde ◽  
Haley Hrncir ◽  
Arthur P. Arnold ◽  
James D. Jentsch
Keyword(s):  
Mouse Model ◽  
Reversal Learning ◽  
Learning Performance

Sex chromosome complement affects multiple aspects of reversal‐learning task performance in mice

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shawn M. Aarde ◽  
Rylee M. Genner ◽  
Haley Hrncir ◽  
Arthur P. Arnold ◽  
James D. Jentsch
Keyword(s):  
Task Performance ◽  
Reversal Learning ◽  
Sex Chromosome ◽  
Chromosome Complement ◽  
Learning Task

scholarly journals The Dynamics of Feedback-based Learning is Modulated by Working Memory Capacity

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jil Humann ◽  
Adrian Georg Fischer ◽  
Markus Ullsperger
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Reversal Learning ◽  
Working Memory Capacity ◽  
Instrumental Learning ◽  
Memory Capacity ◽  
Learning Task ◽  
Learning Performance ◽  
Prediction Errors ◽  
Dependent Manner ◽  
Learning Rates

Research suggests that working memory (WM) has an important role in instrumental learning in changeable environments when reinforcement histories of multiple options must be tracked. Working memory capacity (WMC) not only reflects the ability to maintain items, but also to update and shield items against interference in a context-dependent manner; functions conceivably also essential to instrumental learning. To address the relationship of WMC and instrumental learning, we studied choice behavior and EEG of participants performing a probabilistic reversal learning task. Their separately measured WMC positively correlated with reversal learning performance. Computational modeling revealed that low-capacity participants modulated learning rates less dynamically around value reversals. Their choices were more stochastic and less guided by learnt values, resulting in less stable performance and higher susceptibility to misleading probabilistic feedback. Single-trial model-based EEG analysis revealed that prediction errors and learning rates were less strongly represented in cortical activity of low-capacity participants, while the centroparietal positivity, a general correlate of adaptation, was independent of WMC. In conclusion, cognitive functions tackled by WMC tasks are also necessary in instrumental learning. We suggest that noisier representations render items held in WM as well as tracked values in instrumental learning less stable and more susceptible to distractors.

scholarly journals Role of Reversal Learning Impairment in Social Disinhibition following Severe Traumatic Brain Injury

2016 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 303-313 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine Osborne-Crowley ◽  
Skye McDonald ◽  
Jacqueline A. Rushby
Keyword(s):  
Traumatic Brain Injury ◽  
Brain Injury ◽  
Reversal Learning ◽  
Prediction Error ◽  
Learning Task ◽  
Reward Prediction Error ◽  
Reward Prediction ◽  
The Social ◽  
Learning Impairment ◽  
Reversal Errors

AbstractObjectives: The current study aimed to determine whether reversal learning impairments and feedback-related negativity (FRN), reflecting reward prediction error signals generated by negative feedback during the reversal learning tasks, were associated with social disinhibition in a group of participants with traumatic brain injury (TBI). Methods: Number of reversal errors on a social and a non-social reversal learning task and FRN were examined for 21 participants with TBI and 21 control participants matched for age. Participants with TBI were also divided into low and high disinhibition groups based on rated videotaped interviews. Results: Participants with TBI made more reversal errors and produced smaller amplitude FRNs than controls. Furthermore, participants with TBI high on social disinhibition made more reversal errors on the social reversal learning task than did those low on social disinhibition. FRN amplitude was not related to disinhibition. Conclusions: These results suggest that impairment in the ability to update behavior when social reinforcement contingencies change plays a role in social disinhibition after TBI. Furthermore, the social reversal learning task used in this study may be a useful neuropsychological tool for detecting susceptibility to acquired social disinhibition following TBI. Finally, that the FRN amplitude was not associated with social disinhibition suggests that reward prediction error signals are not critical for behavioral adaptation in the social domain. (JINS, 2016, 21, 303–313)

scholarly journals Possible association between spindle frequency and reversal-learning in aged family dogs

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ivaylo Borislavov Iotchev ◽  
Dóra Szabó ◽  
Anna Kis ◽  
Enikő Kubinyi
Keyword(s):  
Reversal Learning ◽  
Cognitive Aging ◽  
Short Term Memory ◽  
Learning Task ◽  
Learning Performance ◽  
Sleep Spindle ◽  
General Mental Ability ◽  
Specific Memory ◽  
Dementia Risk ◽  
Amplitude Density

AbstractIn both humans and dogs sleep spindle occurrence between acquisition and recall of a specific memory correlate with learning performance. However, it is not known whether sleep spindle characteristics are also linked to performance beyond the span of a day, except in regard to general mental ability in humans. Such a relationship is likely, as both memory and spindle expression decline with age in both species (in dogs specifically the density and amplitude of slow spindles). We investigated if spindle amplitude, density (spindles/minute) and/or frequency (waves/second) correlate with performance on a short-term memory and a reversal-learning task in old dogs (> 7 years), when measurements of behavior and EEG were on average a month apart. Higher frequencies of fast (≥ 13 Hz) spindles on the frontal and central midline electrodes, and of slow spindles (≤ 13 Hz) on the central midline electrode were linked to worse performance on a reversal-learning task. The present findings suggest a role for spindle frequency as a biomarker of cognitive aging across species: Changes in spindle frequency are associated with dementia risk and onset in humans and declining learning performance in the dog.

scholarly journals Goats (Capra hircus) from different selection lines differ in their behavioural flexibility

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Nawroth ◽  
Katrina ◽  
Nina Keil ◽  
Jan Langbein
Keyword(s):  
Discrimination Learning ◽  
Reversal Learning ◽  
Learning Task ◽  
Learning Performance ◽  
Capra Hircus ◽  
Learning Criterion ◽  
Behavioural Flexibility ◽  
Dairy Goats ◽  
Selection For ◽  
Dwarf Goats

Artificial selection by humans has likely affected animal’s ability to learn novel contingencies and their ability to adapt to changing environments. In addition, the selection for specific traits in domestic animals might have an additional impact on subject’s behavioural flexibility, but also their general learning performance, due to a re-allocation of resources towards parameters of productivity. To test whether animals bred for high productivity would experience a shift towards lower learning performance, we compared the performance of dwarf goats (not selected for production, 15 subjects) and dairy goats (selected for high milk yield, 18 subjects) in a visual discrimination learning and reversal learning task. To increase the heterogeneity of our test sample, data was collected by two experimenters at two research stations following a similar protocol. We did not find differences between selection lines in the initial discrimination learning task, but in the subsequent reversal learning task - dairy goats were slower to reach the learning criterion compared to dwarf goats (9.18 sessions versus 7.74 sessions, respectively). Our results indicate that the selection for milk production might have affected behavioural flexibility in goats. These breed-specific differences in adapting to changing environmental stimuli might have an impact on welfare-relevant parameters, e.g. when subjects are transferred or re-housed/re-grouped.

Color-reversal learning: Effects after lesions of thalamic visual structures in pigeons

1993 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 1099-1107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lin M. Chaves ◽  
William Hodos ◽  
Onur Güntürkün
Keyword(s):  
Reversal Learning ◽  
Color Discrimination ◽  
Learning Task ◽  
Learning Performance ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Stimulus Context ◽  
Learning Deficits ◽  
Nucleus Rotundus ◽  
Thalamic Lesions ◽  
Tectofugal Pathway

AbstractThe performance of pigeons on a color-reversal learning task was assessed after thalamic lesions disrupting the thalamofugal and tectofugal visual pathways. Successful performance of a simultaneous color discrimination was accomplished after surgery, and a series of reversals of the original discrimination followed during which the positive and negative consequences associated with the stimuli were interchanged. Shimizu and Hodos (1989) had reported that lesions of two laminae in the visual wulst (IHA and HD), both targets of the avian thalamofugal pathway, resulted in increased errors in a color-reversal learning task in pigeons. This finding suggested that the thalamofugal pathway might play a role in visual discrimination involving stimulus context changes. In the present study, lesions of the OPT complex (the thalamic source of afferents to IHA and HD) were found to have no effect on color-reversal learning performance. Instead, we found that damage to nucleus rotundus (the thalamic component of the tectofugal pathway) resulted in deficits that were far in excess of those that had been obtained after IHA and HD lesions. We suggest that the color-reversal learning deficits after Wulst lesions are not due to the Wulst's connections with the thalamofugal pathway, but rather to its connections with the tectofugal pathway.

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