Citation:

Bushnell, P J., V A. Benignus, AND M W. Case. SIGNAL DETECTION BEHAVIOR IN HUMANS AND RATS: A COMPARISON WITH MATCHED TASKS. BEHAVIOURAL PROCESSES. Elsevier Online, New York, NY, 64(1):121-129, (2003).

Impact/Purpose:

To measure and compare the behavior in humans and laboratory rats at a task involving cognitive processes in order to elucidate the neurobiological mechanisms of these processes

Description:

Animal models of human cognitive processes are essential for studying the neurobiological mechanisms of these processes and for developing therapies for intoxication and neurodegenerative diseases. A discrete-trial signal detection task was developed for assessing sustained attention in rats; a previous study showed that rats perform as predicted from the human sustained attention literature. In this study we measured the behavior of humans in a task formally homologous to the task for rats, varying two of the three parameters previously shown to affect performance in rats. Signal quality was manipulated by varying the increment in the intensity of a lamp (duration = 100 msec). Event rate was varied among values of 4, 7 and 10 trials/min. Accuracy of signal detection was quantified by the proportion of correct detections of the signal [P(hit)] and the proportion of false alarms [P(fa), i.e., incorrect responses on non-signal trials]. As with rats, P(hit) in humans increased with increasing signal intensity whereas P(fa) did not. Like rats, humans were sensitive to the event rate, though the change in behavior depended on the sex of the subject. P(hit) was maximal at 4 trials/min in female humans and in rats, but was maximal at 7 trials/min in male humans. P(fa) was minimal for both sexes at 7 trials/min, and at 4 trials/min in rats. These data show that visual signal detection behavior in rats and humans is controlled similarly by two important parameters, and suggest that this task assesses similar processes of sustained attention in the two species.

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