Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 20, 2025
The 5-Choice Serial Reaction Time Task: A Task of Attention and Impulse Control for Rodents
Published on: August 10, 2014
Assessing the nature of premature responses in the rodent continuous performance test variable intertrial interval
S Prichardt1, M Caballero-Puntiverio1, L Klem2
1Dept. of Drug Design and Pharmacology, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 2, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark; Symptoms Biology, H. Lundbeck A/S, Ottiliavej 9, 2500 Valby, Denmark.
Background:
Rodent operant tests that include premature responses (PR) as a measure of impulsivity commonly use variable intertrial interval (vITI) schedules. The rodent continuous performance test (rCPT) is suitable for a vITI schedule.
New Method:
We optimised the analysis for a rCPT vITI schedule with intertrial intervals (ITIs) of 3, 6, and 12 s. Examining the nature of first (FiT) and following touches (FoT) to the blank screen led to a separate quantification of these two behaviours into the first touches level (%FiT) and the following-to-first touches ratio (FoT/FiT).
Results:
FiTs occurred more frequently in the 12 s ITIs than at shorter ITIs. Within 12 s ITIs, %FiT was only moderately higher during the last half than the first half, suggesting that long ITIs have a minimal effect on impulsivity, but allow a longer time for its detection. %FiT and the FoT/FiT ratio were uncorrelated. %FiT was negatively correlated with response criterion (C) and uncorrelated with discriminability. Conversely, FoT/FiT ratio was negatively correlated with discriminability, without correlation to C. Atomoxetine decreased %FiT but did not affect FoT/FiT ratio. Amphetamine increased %FiT and decreased the FoT/FiT ratio.
Comparison With Existing Method(S):
The results suggest that %FiT is analogous to %PR in related tasks and is a more suitable measure of waiting impulsivity in the rCPT. FoT/FiT ratio is unrelated to %FiT.
Conclusions:
Long ITIs increase the detectability of, but has minimal effect on, waiting impulsivity. %FiT is analogous to %PR in related tasks, while the FoT/FiT ratio is a separate behaviour requiring further characterization.
