The 5 choice continuous performance test (5C-CPT): A novel tool to assess cognitive control across species

Neurodevelopmental disorders including Tourette's syndrome (TS) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are characterized by significant impairment in attention and cognitive control. These cognitive deficits persist throughout development, contribute significantly to socio-occupational impairment, and are relatively impervious to available treatment. A critical challenge in pro-cognitive drug discovery is translatability of findings across species, underscoring the need for developing valid and reliable cross-species cognitive tasks.

Here we describe a cross-species 5 choice continuous performance task that was developed to measure cognitive control processes of attention, vigilance, and response inhibition, enabling the translation of findings for pro-cognitive drug discovery across species and delineate neural mechanisms underlying cognitive control construct.

Construct validity of 5C-CPT has been verified by multiple cross-species studies. Several lines of evidence report consistent findings across species including, deficits resulting from 36-h sleep deprivation studies, engagement of parietal cortex in human brain imaging and rodent lesion studies, and vigilance decrements over time.

Unlike the widely used rodent 5 choice serial reaction time task (5CSRTT) and the sustained attention task (SAT), the rodent 5C-CPT includes both target and non-target stimuli that allow measuring of cognitive control elements including response inhibition, an ability to inhibit pre-potent response during non-target trials, detect vigilance decrement and calculate signal detection parameters in rodents analogous to human CPT.

The cross-species 5C-CPT is a robust translational tool to characterize the neurobiological substrates underlying cognitive control deficits in clinical population including, ADHD and TS and develop targeted pro-cognitive therapeutics.