T. Humby et al., Visuospatial attentional functioning in mice: interactions between cholinergic manipulations and genotype, EUR J NEURO, 11(8), 1999, pp. 2813-2823
Attentional functioning in mice was assessed in an analogue of the five-cho
ice serial reaction time task in which the requirement was to detect brief
visual stimuli presented across five spatial locations. Two hybrid strains
of mice were assessed; F1 C57Bl/6xDBA/2 and C57Bl/6x129sv. Both strains acq
uired the task to high levels of performance with, in particular, no proble
ms due to premature responding. At performance, systematic manipulation of
the task parameters indicated a pattern of effects consistent with the task
, taxing aspects of visuospatial attention. There were some differential ef
fects of task manipulations at baseline across strain. However, the pattern
of effects suggested these were likely to be the result of effects on fact
ors other than attentional functioning per se, such as behavioural reactivi
ty and inhibition. There was evidence in both strains of specific, centrall
y mediated effects of scopolamine on attentional functioning, with the C57B
l/6xDBA/2 hybrid showing greater sensitivity to the drug manipulation. Spec
ific effects on discriminative accuracy were observed at doses of 0.02 and
0.2 mg/kg scopolamine. At the 2 mg/kg dose, large reductions in accuracy we
re associated with large effects on other measures, including omissions and
response latencies, suggestive of nonspecific effects on task performance.
These data indicate, for the first time, the utility of operant methods in
assessing visuospatial attentional functioning in mice. They confirm the i
mportance of cholinergic mechanisms in attentional processes across species
, and suggest interactions between cholinergic mechanisms and genotype in t
he expression of attentional phenotypes.