response to novelty correlates with learning rate in a gono-go task in g？ttingen minipigs应对新奇与学习速率在g gono-go任务业务minipigs.pdfVIP

NEURAL PLASTICITY VOLUME 12, NO. 4, 2005 Response to Novelty Correlates with Learning Rate in a Go/No-Go Task in G ttingen Minipigs Nanna Marie Lind and Anette Moustgaard Department ofPsychiatry, H.’S Bispebjerg, University Hospital ofCopenhagen, Bispebjerg Bakke 23, Copenhagen NV, DenmarkandDivision ofLaboratoryAnimal Science and Welfare, Department of Veterinary Pathobiology, The Royal Veterinary andAgricultural University, Frederiksberg C, Denmark SUMMARY We hypothesize that the critical factor in this relation is difference in emotional reactivity Novelty-seeking and harm-avoidance perso- rather than difference in motivation for nality traits influence Go/No-go (GNG)learning exploration. In conclusion, in addition to in humans. Animal studies have also indicated a ’cognitive’ ability, ’temperamental’ factors are link between response to novelty and spatial likely to influence learning in individual pigs. discrimination learning. In the present study, we test the hypothesis that learning rate in a GNG task correlates with the behavioral response of G6ttingen minipigs to novelty. In a group of 12 KEYWORDS minipigs of mixed genders, response to novelty was measured by numbers of contacts with a pig, swine, emotional reactivity, temperament novel object, and the total duration of explora- tion of the novel object. These parameters were correlated to individual learning rate in a GNG INTRODUCTION task. The number of sessions to reach criterion in the GNG