Abstract
Tool-use behaviour has been observed in nonhuman animals in the wild and in experimental settings. In the present study, we investigated whether rats (Rattus norvegicus) could manipulate a tool according to the position of food to obtain the food in an experimental setting. Eight rats were trained to use a rake-shaped tool to obtain food beyond their reach using a step-by-step protocol in the initial training period. Following training, the rake was placed at the centre of the experimental apparatus, and food was placed on either the left or right side of the rake. Rats learned to manipulate the rake to obtain food in situations in which they could not obtain the food just by pulling the rake perpendicularly to themselves. Our findings thus indicate that the rat is a potential animal model to investigate the behavioural and neural mechanisms of tool-use behaviour.
Highlights
St Amant and Horton[1] provided the following definition of tool-use
Some studies have reported that human infants and nonhuman animals can be trained to use a rake-shaped tool to obtain a toy or food beyond their reach in situations in which they cannot obtain the reward by pulling the tool itself towards them
Some studies have reported that human infants and common marmosets exhibit handedness at the group level depending on the direction of tool manipulation required in each experimental situation[8, 21, 26]
Summary
St Amant and Horton[1] provided the following definition of tool-use. Tool-use is the exertion of control over a freely manipulable external object to generate a mechanical dynamic interaction between the user and an object or to affect the transfer of information between the user and the environment. Similar tool-use tasks have been carried out by Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata)[10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19], rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta)[20], common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus)[21, 22], and degus (Octodon degus)[23, 24] These studies of nonhuman animals show that subjects could be trained to manipulate a rake-shaped tool laterally before pulling on it, allowing them to obtain a food item beyond their reach in situations in which they could not obtain the food by pulling the tool perpendicularly to themselves without further manipulation. No previous research in rodents, including degus, has examined whether there are dominant body parts for tool use at the group level that correlate with different situations
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