The Web-Surf Task: A translational model of human decision-making

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Science
• Neuroscience
• Comparative Psychology

Background:

• Animal models are crucial for decision-making research, but a gap exists between pre-clinical applications and clinical outcomes.
• This gap may stem from unverified assumptions about shared neural and psychological mechanisms across species.
• Translational research requires validated cross-species paradigms to bridge this gap.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce and validate a novel human foraging task (Web-Surf Task) translated from a rat paradigm (Restaurant Row).
• To evaluate cross-species decision-making similarities by comparing behavioral parallels between humans and rats.
• To compare human task variants using videos versus photos as rewards to assess reliability and validity.

Main Methods:

• Developed the human Web-Surf Task, adapted from the rat Restaurant Row paradigm.
• Examined behavioral parallels in choice behavior and decision reaction times between human and rat subjects using their respective tasks.
• Compared human task performance using video rewards versus photo rewards, correlating revealed and stated preferences.

Main Results:

• Demonstrated significant similarities in choice behaviors and decision reaction times between human and rat subjects.
• Found that the video reward variant of the human task yielded more reliable and valid results compared to the photo variant.
• Identified behavioral parallels supporting the cross-species applicability of the foraging tasks.

Conclusions:

• The Web-Surf Task and Restaurant Row paradigm offer a promising approach for functional translational research.
• Analogous tasks facilitate bridging pre-clinical findings with clinical applications in decision-making research.
• Validating cross-species mechanisms through comparable tasks can improve the translation of animal model research to human treatments.