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The Journal of Neuroscience, February 4, 2004, 24(5):1034-1039; doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3340-03.2004

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Behavioral/Systems/Cognitive
A New Rat Model of the Human Serial Reaction Time Task: Contrasting Effects of Caudate and Hippocampal Lesions

Michael A. Christie¹ and John C. Dalrymple-Alford²

¹Center for Aging Genetics and Neurodegeneration, Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts 02129, and ²Christchurch Brain Research Group, Department of Psychology, University of Canterbury, Private Bag 4800, Christchurch, New Zealand

There is often little correspondence between human and animal examples of nondeclarative memory. The serial reaction time task (SRT) is a sequence learning example of human nondeclarative memory that may be suitable for development as an animal model. The SRT is believed to be impaired by basal ganglia, not limbic system damage, but there is uncertainty whether limbic system pathology does in fact leave the SRT unimpaired. We therefore developed a new rat model that closely approximated the human SRT, using intracranial self-stimulation to promote rapid continuous responding to four adjacent nose pokes in a single test session. Intact rats that experienced repeated sequences demonstrated robust interference effects when switched to a random sequence of cued responses (at 4-, 8-, and 12-sequence lengths), unlike intact controls that experienced the random sequences only. The interference effect in the human task is a key measure for nondeclarative sequence learning. Rats with dorsal caudate lesions that experienced massed sequence repetitions showed an interference effect at the four-sequence length only. By contrast, rats with dorsal hippocampal lesions showed an interference effect at all sequence lengths. This new rat SRT model clarifies the basal ganglia–limbic system dichotomy suggested by human work.

Key words: declarative memory; nondeclarative memory; procedural memory; multiple-memory systems; sequence learning; caudate; hippocampus; lesion; rat; serial reaction time task; intracranial self-stimulation

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Received July 15, 2003; revised November 19, 2003; accepted November 30, 2003.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				K. R. Bailey and R. G. Mair The Role of Striatum in Initiation and Execution of Learned Action Sequences in Rats J. Neurosci., January 18, 2006; 26(3): 1016 - 1025. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				M. A. Christie and S. M. Hersch Demonstration of nondeclarative sequence learning in mice: Development of an animal analog of the human serial reaction time task Learn. Mem., November 1, 2004; 11(6): 720 - 723. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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