Abstract
Many studies on non-human animals have attempted to investigate the neural mechanisms underlying tool-use behavior. However, previous studies showed considerable non-tool-use-specific differences between tool-use and control tasks. The purpose of the present study was to develop a control training task for studies that investigate the neural mechanisms behind tool-use in rodents. Eight rats were subjected to control tasks which excluded tool-use-specific factors and consisted of training for hook-pulling and hook-choice tasks, as well as tool-choice tests which included tool-use specific factors and were similar to those in a previous study on rats. With the exception of one rat, the results of the hook-choice training showed that the previous study and the present study had similar difficulty levels. In the tool-choice tests of the present study, rats did not choose the functional tools over the non-functional tools when there was no contradiction between their appearance and functionality, which contrasted with the previous study on which this study was based on. These results suggest that the training task that excludes tool-use-specific factors can be appropriately utilized as a control task for studies investigating the neural mechanisms behind tool-use in animals and, potentially, in humans.•Hook-choice training without tool-use-specific factors can be performed as a control task.•Prior tool-use training improved rats’ performance in experimental tests.•Control task for rodents allows investigation of the neural mechanisms of tool-use.
Highlights
This study aimed to develop a control task for studies investigating the neural mechanisms behind tool-use tasks in rodents
Results of two-tailed binomial tests for each rat across the three tests revealed that the rats were not able to choose the functional rakes in Tests 1 and 2 (Test 1: BN21: p < 0.001; BN22: p < 0.05; BN23–BN25, BN27, BN28: n. s.; Test 2: BN21–BN25, BN27, BN28: n. s.; Fig. 4), and only one rat (BN27) was able to choose the functional rake in Test 3 (BN21–BN25: n. s.; BN27: p < 0.05; BN28: n. s.; Fig. 4)
For the hook-choice training, non-significant difference in the number of sessions until each rat attained the criterion between the present study and the previous study [6] suggests that the training in these two studies had similar difficulty levels, and that the newly developed hook-choice training used in the present study, which excluded tool-use-specific factors, would be appropriate as a control for a tool-use task
Summary
Previous studies on humans [1] and non-human animals [2] have attempted to examine the neural mechanisms underlying tool-use behavior. Both of these studies reported that cerebral changes were not induced by control tasks, but were specific to tool-use tasks In these studies, the subjects were required to manipulate a rakeshaped tool in order to obtain a food reward which was placed beyond their reach [3,4]. A transparent acrylic board (0.5 cm wide Â29.0 cm long Â1.0 cm high) was placed as a partition in the center of the experimental board while conducting all training and tests, except during the shaping phase (hook-pulling training). This partition prevented the two hooks positioned for the experiment from coming into contact with each other. The experimenter sat in front of the box, observed the subject’s behavior, and performed the following behavioral procedures
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