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Published on: June 5, 2019
The effect of the inter-phase delay interval in the spontaneous object recognition test for pigs
Birgitte Rahbek Kornum1, Kristin Sjølie Thygesen, Thomas Rune Nielsen
1Neurobiology Research Unit and Center for Integrated Molecular Brain Imaging, N9201 Copenhagen University Hospital, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen E, Denmark. birgitte.kornum@nru.dk <birgitte.kornum@nru.dk>
Behavioural Brain Research
|May 26, 2007
Summary
Göttingen minipigs show object recognition in a spontaneous object recognition test after a 10-minute delay. Performance decreases with longer delays, highlighting the test’s sensitivity to inter-phase intervals.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Animal Behavior
Background:
- Growing interest in using pigs for neuroscience research.
- Need for validated behavioral paradigms in pig models.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the effect of inter-phase delay intervals on Göttingen minipig performance in the spontaneous object recognition test.
- To compare manual and automatic scoring methods for this test.
Main Methods:
- Göttingen minipigs were tested using a spontaneous object recognition task with varying inter-phase delays (10 min, 1 h, 24 h).
- Exploration times for familiar and novel objects were recorded manually and automatically.
- Discrimination was assessed by comparing exploration times.
Main Results:
- Strong discrimination between novel and familiar objects was observed after a 10-minute delay.
- No discrimination was found after a 24-hour delay.
- Habituation occurred after 1 hour, but discrimination was absent; high between-subject variation was noted.
Conclusions:
- The spontaneous object recognition test is sensitive to inter-phase delay intervals in pigs.
- Automatic data acquisition is a valid method for analyzing habituation and discrimination, though it may overestimate individual measurements.
