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Updated: May 23, 2026
New Variations for Strategy Set-shifting in the Rat
Published on: January 23, 2017
Serotonin transporter knockout rats show improved strategy set-shifting and reduced latent inhibition
Lourens J P Nonkes1, Ilse I G M van de Vondervoort, Mark J C de Leeuw
1Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition, and Behaviour, Centre for Neuroscience, Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, 6525 EZ, The Netherlands.
Abstract:
Behavioral flexibility is a cognitive process depending on prefrontal areas allowing adaptive responses to environmental changes. Serotonin transporter knockout (5-HTT(-/-)) rodents show improved reversal learning in addition to orbitofrontal cortex changes. Another form of behavioral flexibility, extradimensional strategy set-shifting (EDSS), heavily depends on the medial prefrontal cortex. This region shows functional changes in 5-HTT(-/-) rodents as well. Here we subjected 5-HTT(-/-) rats and their wild-type counterparts to an EDSS paradigm and a supplementary latent inhibition task. Results indicate that 5-HTT(-/-) rats also show improved EDSS, and indicate that reduced latent inhibition may contribute as an underlying mechanism.
