Neural mechanisms mediating inferential reasoning abilities in rats

描述（由申请人提供）：神经机制介导大鼠推理能力。在面对不确定性时做出决定的能力在老年人中会不成比例地下降。由于我们的生活中充满了模棱两可的情况，而且对通常调节这种能力的认知过程知之甚少，因此需要进一步的研究来阐明潜在的机制。目前的研究是用老鼠来深入了解这些心理和神经过程。具体而言，本研究旨在探讨在模糊情境下，先验经验与推理推理之间的相互作用。此外，它将研究来自海马体的胆碱能调节在这些决策策略中的作用，海马体是一个特别受年龄相关衰退影响的结构。大鼠首先将被训练使用工具条件反射来解决涉及元素和线索化合物的复杂视觉辨别。在随后的测试中，我们将用不透明的盾牌遮挡其中一个视觉线索，同时呈现另一个线索。我们实验室的初步研究表明，老鼠对掩体造成的模糊性很敏感，但只有在某些条件下才会这样。具体来说，这种敏感性似乎取决于大鼠先前的训练历史。提出的实验旨在确定在模棱两可的情况下有助于推理推理过程的先验经验的关键特征。将探讨的特征包括：1)通过改变任务的复杂性成功解决初始辨别所需的认知努力的影响，2)参与初始辨别的解决策略，以及3)颞叶结构中神经递质乙酰胆碱在调节对封面的敏感性方面的作用。这些实验的结果可以帮助开发干预措施，促进在教育和临床中使用这些认知过程

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Neural mechanisms mediating inferential reasoning abilities in rats. The ability to make decisions in the face of uncertainty has been shown to decline disproportionately in aging adults. Because our lives are replete with ambiguous situations and little is known about the cognitive processes that normally mediate this ability, further research is needed to elucidate the underlying mechanisms. The present line of research uses rats to gain insight into these psychological and neurological processes. Specifically, the proposed research aims to investigate the interaction between prior experience and inferential reasoning in an ambiguous situation. Additionally, it will investigate the role of cholinergic modulation from the hippocampus-a structure particularly affected by age-related decline-in mediating these decision-making strategies. Rats will first be trained using instrumental conditioning to solve complex visual discriminations involving elements and cue compounds. In subsequent test sessions, we will occlude one of the visual cues with an opaque shield while presenting the other cue. Preliminary research from our lab suggests that rats are sensitive to the ambiguity created by the cover, but only under certain conditions. Specifically, this sensitiviy appears to be dependent on the rat's prior training history. The proposed experiments are designed to determine the critical features of prior experience that contribute to inferential reasoning processes in ambiguous situations. Features that will be explored include the influence of 1) cognitive effort required to successfully solve the initial discrimination by varyig the complexity of the task, 2) solution strategy engaged in the initial discrimination, and 3) the role of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine in the temporal lobe structure, hippocampus, in mediating sensitivity to the cover. The results of these experiments can aid in the development of interventions facilitating the use of these cognitive processes in both educational and clinical settings to remediate age-related cognitive decline.