Interval timing in rats: tracking unsignaled changes in the fixed interval schedule requirement (original) (raw)
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Multiple-interval timing in rats: Performance on two-valued mixed fixed-interval schedules.
2003
Abstract 1. Three experiments studied timing in rats on 2-valued mixed-fixed-interval schedules, with equally probable components, Fixed-Interval S and Fixed-Interval L (FI S and FI L, respectively). When the L: S ratio was greater than 4, 2 distinct response peaks appeared close to FI S and FI L, and data could be well fitted by the sum of 2 Gaussian curves.
Rapid timing of a single transition in interfood interval duration by rats
Animal Learning & Behavior, 1997
The present experiment examined temporal control of wait-time responses by interfood interval (IFI) duration. We exposed rats to a sequence of intervals that changed in duration at an unpredictable point within a session. In Phase 1, intervals changed from 15 to 5 sec (step-down) or from 15 to 45 sec (step-up). In Phase 2, we increased the intervals by a factor of four. We observed rapid timing effects during a transition in both phases of the experiment: A step-down and a step-up transition significantly decreased and increased wait time in the next interval, respectively. Furthermore, adjustment of wait times during step-down was largely complete by the third transition IFl. In contrast, wait times gradually increased across several transition IFls during step-up. The results reveal dynamic properties of temporal control that depend on the direction in which IFIs change. Organization ofbehavior by the time between food presentations has been demonstrated in a variety of animals ranging from rats and pigeons (see, e.g., Richelle & Lejeune, 1980) to captive starlings (e.g., Brunner, Kacelnik, & Gibbon, 1992) to fish and turtles (Lejeune & Wearden, 1991). For example, animals given extended exposure to fixed-interval (FI) reinforcement schedules come under the control of the time between reinforcer deliveries (interfood interval, IFI). A hallmark of responding during FI schedules is a postreinforcement wait time that is proportional to the IFI duration (Lowe & Harzem, 1977; Shull, 1970; Zeiler & Powell, 1994). FI schedules and other timing procedures (e.g., the peak procedure; Catania, 1970; Roberts, 1981) are usually studied for the steady-state behavior they generate. Many quantitative properties have been discovered (e.g., scalar timing; Gibbon, 1977) that have been useful in testing and developing models of timing. Leading models in this area are scalar expectancy theory (SET; Church, 1984; Gibbon, 1977; Gibbon & Church, 1984) and the behavioral theory of timing (BeT; Killeen & Fetterman, 1988). Both are essentially molar models. SET's assumption about memory for time intervals, for example, is based on statistical distributions derived from molar features of a pacemaker system and reinforcement schedule (e.g., Gibbon, 1991, 1995; Gibbon & Church, 1984). BeT, too, is based on molar properties. According to BeT, adjunctive responses mediate time discrimination, and these responses are assumed to be associated with transitions be
Bio-protocol, 2020
Animals keep track of time intervals in the seconds to minutes range with, on average, high accuracy but substantial trial-to-trial variability. The ability to detect the statistical signatures of such timing behavior is an indispensable feature of a good and theoretically-tractable testing procedure. A widely used interval timing procedure is the peak interval (PI) procedure, where animals learn to anticipate rewards that become available after a fixed delay. After learning, they cluster their responses around that reward-availability time. The in-depth analysis of such timed anticipatory responses leads to the understanding of an internal timing mechanism, that is, the processing dynamics and systematic biases of the brain’s clock. This protocol explains in detail how the PI procedure can be implemented in rodents, from training through testing to analysis. We showcase both trial-by-trial and trial-averaged analytical methods as a window into these internal processes. This protocol has the advantages of capturing timing behavior in its full-complexity in a fashion that allows for a theoretical treatment of the data.
Interval Timing Behavior: Comparative and Integrative Approaches
International Journal of Comparative Psychology, 2015
The ability of animals to keep track of, remember, and act upon short time intervals has received growing scientific attention attested by the increasing number of papers published and scientific activities organized in this area of research. Arguably, one of the driving forces behind this dynamic is the fact that interval timing captures a fundamental currency, constituent of many derived quantities of critical biological significance. Thus, temporal information processing presumably interacts with many other processes that support the adaptiveness of organisms in their environment by operating on variables that are derived from time intervals.
Interval Timing Behavior: Comparative and Integrative Approaches Introduction to the Special
2015
The ability of animals to keep track of, remember, and act upon short time intervals has received growing scientific attention attested by the increasing number of papers published and scientific activities organized in this area of research. Arguably, one of the driving forces behind this dynamic is the fact that interval timing captures a fundamental currency, constituent of many derived quantities of critical biological significance. Thus, temporal information processing presumably interacts with many other processes that support the adaptiveness of organisms in their environment by operating on variables that are derived from time intervals.
Interval timing in genetically modified mice: a simple paradigm
Genes, Brain and Behavior, 2008
We describe a behavioral screen for the quantitative study of interval timing and interval memory in mice. Mice learn to switch from a short-latency feeding station to a long-latency station when the short latency has passed without a feeding. The psychometric function is the cumulative distribution of switch latencies. Its median measures timing accuracy and its interquartile interval measures timing precision. Next, using this behavioral paradigm, we have examined mice with a gene knockout of the receptor for gastrin-releasing peptide that show enhanced (i.e. prolonged) freezing in fear conditioning. We have tested the hypothesis that the mutants freeze longer because they are more uncertain than wild types about when to expect the electric shock. The knockouts however show normal accuracy and precision in timing, so we have rejected this alternative hypothesis. Last, we conduct the pharmacological validation of our behavioral screen using D-amphetamine and methamphetamine. We suggest including the analysis of interval timing and temporal memory in tests of genetically modified mice for learning and memory and argue that our paradigm allows this to be done simply and efficiently.
Learning & behavior, 2016
The distribution of latencies and interresponse times (IRTs) of rats was compared between two fixed-interval (FI) schedules of food reinforcement (FI 30 s and FI 90 s), and between two levels of food deprivation. Computational modeling revealed that latencies and IRTs were well described by mixture probability distributions embodying two-state Markov chains. Analysis of these models revealed that only a subset of latencies is sensitive to the periodicity of reinforcement, and prefeeding only reduces the size of this subset. The distribution of IRTs suggests that behavior in FI schedules is organized in bouts that lengthen and ramp up in frequency with proximity to reinforcement. Prefeeding slowed down the lengthening of bouts and increased the time between bouts. When concatenated, latency and IRT models adequately reproduced sigmoidal FI response functions. These findings suggest that behavior in FI schedules fluctuates in and out of schedule control; an account of such fluctuation...
Periodicities Within a Fixed‐Interval SESSION1
1979
Within-session periodicities in number of responses per interval and postreinforcement pauses were investigated on fixed-interval schedules of 1, 2, and 3 minutes with rats. Postreinforcement pause values and the number of responses in successive intervals were not systematically related. The direction of change of these variables from one pair of intervals to the next revealed periodicities in that the direction of change varied more than would be expected by chance. A response prevention technique used to manipulate the length of time spent responding in an interval had little effect on the postreinforcement pause value of the next interval except when only a single response was permitted in an interval. This procedure tended to reduce the postreinforcement pause value of the next interval to an abnormally low level. Key words: Fixed-interval schedules, postreinforcement pauses, number of responses per interval, sequential effects, autocorrelations, runs test, lever pressing, rats 'The author is grateful to Michael D. Zeiler for invaluable suggestions concerning the analysis of the data presented in this paper. Reprints may be obtained from J.
The effect of an intruded event on peak-interval timing in rats: Isolation of a postcue effect
Behavioural Processes, 2007
The present experiment employed the peak-interval (PI) procedure to study the effect of an intruded cue on timing behavior. Rats were trained on a 30-s PI procedure with a tone cue. Subsequently, a 6-s flashing light was paired off-baseline with foot shock (Experiment 1) or presented alone (Experiment 2). Then, in test trials, the light cue was presented 9 s prior to (before) or 3 s after (during) the onset of the timing cue, or the light was omitted (probe). Results showed rightward shifts in peak time occurring on both before and during trials in both experiments. Peak shifts on during trials exceeded the reset prediction in Experiment 1. When PI functions for before and probe trials were normalized in peak rate and peak time, they superimposed better than when functions were adjusted additively along the time axis, suggesting that the light cue may engender a decrease in functional clock rate. The findings suggested that the intruded cue produced both intracue and postcue interference with timing that was enhanced by fear conditioning.
Interval timing deficits and their neurobiological correlates in aging mice
Neurobiology of Aging, 2020
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