Rats show adaptive choice in a metacognitive task with high uncertainty

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Animal Behavior

Background:

• Metacognition, the ability to monitor and control one's own cognitive processes, is crucial for higher cognitive functions.
• While observed in primates, a rodent model is needed for in-depth behavioral, molecular, and neural studies of metacognition.

Purpose of the Study:

• To establish and validate a rodent model for studying metacognition.
• To investigate whether rats exhibit metacognitive abilities in a decision-making task.

Main Methods:

• Rats were trained on a task requiring them to remember a location and choose between demonstrating memory or escaping to an easier task.
• A two-choice and a six-choice metacognitive task were employed with four and three rats, respectively.

Main Results:

• Rats in the six-choice task adaptively used the escape option to increase reward probability, accepting a reduced reward amount.
• Rats escaped more in sample-omitted trials, indicating a metacognitive judgment of their memory confidence.
• Rats in the two-choice task did not show adaptive use of the escape response.

Conclusions:

• The findings support the hypothesis that rats possess metacognition, establishing them as a valuable model for future research.
• The observed similarities in task switching between rats and capuchin monkeys open avenues for comparative metacognition studies.