Housing conditions affect rat responses to two types of ambiguity in a reward-reward discrimination cognitive bias task

Behav Brain Res. 2014 Nov 1:274:73-83. doi: 10.1016/j.bbr.2014.07.048. Epub 2014 Aug 11.

Abstract

Decision-making under ambiguity in cognitive bias tasks is a promising new indicator of affective valence in animals. Rat studies support the hypothesis that animals in a negative affective state evaluate ambiguous cues negatively. Prior automated operant go/go judgement bias tasks have involved training rats that an auditory cue of one frequency predicts a Reward and a cue of a different frequency predicts a Punisher (RP task), and then measuring whether ambiguous cues of intermediate frequency are judged as predicting reward ('optimism') or punishment ('pessimism'). We investigated whether an automated Reward-Reward (RR) task yielded similar results to, and was faster to train than, RP tasks. We also introduced a new ambiguity test (simultaneous presentation of the two training cues) alongside the standard single ambiguous cue test. Half of the rats experienced an unpredictable housing treatment (UHT) designed to induce a negative state. Control rats were relatively 'pessimistic', whilst UHT rats were quicker, but no less accurate, in their responses in the RR test, and showed less anxiety-like behaviour in independent tests. A possible reason for these findings is that rats adapted to and were stimulated by UHT, whilst control rats in a predictable environment were more sensitive to novelty and change. Responses in the new ambiguity test correlated positively with those in single ambiguous cue tests, and may provide a measure of attention bias. The RR task was quicker to train than previous automated RP tasks. Together, they could be used to disentangle how reward and punishment processes underpin affect-induced cognitive biases.

Keywords: Affect; Cognitive bias; Decision-making; Emotion; Pessimism; Rat.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Acoustic Stimulation
  • Animals
  • Bias*
  • Body Weight
  • Cognition / physiology*
  • Conditioning, Psychological
  • Discrimination Learning
  • Discrimination, Psychological / physiology*
  • Exploratory Behavior
  • Food Preferences
  • Housing, Animal*
  • Judgment / physiology
  • Male
  • Maze Learning
  • Motivation
  • Motor Activity
  • Rats
  • Reaction Time / physiology
  • Reinforcement Schedule
  • Reward*
  • Sucrose / administration & dosage

Substances

  • Sucrose