Knowledge by omission: the significance of omissions in the 5-choice serial reaction time task

Vouillac-Mendoza C(1), Durand A(2), Ahmed SH(1), Guillem K(3).

Author information:
(1)Institut de Neurosciences Cognitives et Intégratives d’Aquitaine, CNRS UMR
5287, Université de Bordeaux, Bâtiment BBS - 2ème étage 2, Rue du Dr Hoffmann
Martinot, Bordeaux, F-33000, France.
(2)Imetronic®, Marcheprime, F- 33380, France.
(3)Institut de Neurosciences Cognitives et Intégratives d’Aquitaine, CNRS UMR
5287, Université de Bordeaux, Bâtiment BBS - 2ème étage 2, Rue du Dr Hoffmann
Martinot, Bordeaux, F-33000, France. .

RATIONALE: The 5-choice serial reaction time task (5-CSRTT) is commonly used to
assess attention in rodents. Manipulation of this task by decreasing the light
stimulus duration is often used to probe attentional capacity and causes a
decrease in accuracy and an increase in omissions. However, although a decrease
in response accuracy is commonly interpreted as a decrease in attention, it is
more difficult to interpret an increase in omissions in terms of attentional
performance.
METHODS: Here we present a series of experiments in rats that seeks to
investigate the origins of these key behavioral measures of attention in the
5-CSRTT. After an initial training in the 5-CSRTT, rats were tested in a
variable stimulus duration procedure to increase task difficulty and probe
visual attentional capacity under several specific controlled conditions.
CONCLUSIONS: We found that response accuracy reflects visuospatial sustained
attentional processing, as commonly interpreted, while response omission
reflects rats’ ignorance about the stimulus location, presumably due to failure
to pay attention to the curved wall during its presentation. Moreover, when rats
lack of relevant information, they choose not to respond instead of responding
randomly. Finally, pretreatment with nicotine selectively decreased response
omissions, without affecting response accuracy, particularly when the
attentional demand was high. Overall, our results indicate that response
accuracy and response omission thus correspond to two distinct attentional
states.

© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany,
part of Springer Nature.

DOI: 10.1007/s00213-024-06564-2
PMID: 38443605

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