Figure 1.
Acquisition curves in naive mice trained either in the sPAL (similar objects) or the dPAL (different objects) tasks.
* p<0.05 and **p<0.01 vs the dPAL group.
Table 1.
Additional parameters measured in touchscreen boxes during experiments A, B and C.
Figure 2.
Acquisition curves in naive mice trained under various conditions in the VMCL task.
*p<0.05 group 4 vs group 1 and p<0.01 group 4 vs group 3.
Figure 3.
Effect of a previous training experience in touchscreen boxes on the acquisition of a new task.
Comparison of the acquisition curves of naive vs trained mice in the dPAL (left panel), the VMCL (central panel) or the sPAL task (right panel). *p<0.05 and ***p<0.001 vs the sPAL (task 1).
Figure 4.
Global repartition of the correct responses of all animals assessed in the PAL tasks (left panel) or in the VMCL task (right panel).
In both PAL paradigms, there are six possible object-place combinations. In the VMCL task, mice can only respond to the left or the right part of the screen after the first central nose-poke.
Figure 5.
Global design of touchscreen experiments.
In experiments A and B, naive mice were trained in the dPAL, sPAL or VMCL tasks according to specific learning conditions (groups 1–4, from top to bottom). In experiment C, most of the mice previously trained in a first touchscreen paradigm were assessed in a different task; because of their experience, early stages of pokey training were purposely skipped. For animals trained in stages with defined limited holding times (LHT), corresponding values are given in white. FD: Food Deprivation; IT: „Initial Touch“; MT: „Must Touch“; MI: „Must Initiate“; PI: „Punish Incorrect“; PT: „Pre-Training“.
Figure 6.
The different trial types in the two versions of the Paired-Associates Learning (dPAL and sPAL) tasks and in the Visuo-Motor Conditional Learning (VMCL) task.
In both PAL paradigms, stimuli are rewarded when located in a specific location: left for the Flower, central for the Plane, right for the Spider. However, in a first variant of the task (dPAL), two different stimuli are presented at the same time, whereas two similar stimuli are presented in the second variant of the task (sPAL). In the VMCL paradigm, only two different trial types coexist for a given rule; note that the current rule can be inverted („If Equal appears, go Right; if Icicle appears, go Left“), which is why all groups were counterbalanced. S+: rewarded stimulus (correct response); S-: non-rewarded stimulus (incorrect response). Picture from Campden Instruments Ltd.; reprinted with permission.