Event Abstract Back to Event Operant behavior of rats controlled by position of a distant object. Daniel Klement1*, David Levcik1, Lenka Duskova1 and Tereza Nekovarova1 1 Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Institute of Physiology, Czechia We present a behavioral task in which rats (n=12) were trained to recognize position of a distant object. The object was displayed on a computer screen standing 37 cm in front of an operant chamber. Initially the object alternated among three different positions in a pseudorandom manner. The rats were conditioned to press a lever for food reward when the object was in one particular position. Later the object moved across the screen and the rats were rewarded for responding when the object was within a region around the previously to-be-recognized position. To prevent timing as an effective strategy the object was changing speed of its movement. In the first phase the rats responded most frequently when the object was in the to-be-recognized position. The frequency of responding in the two non-reward positions was similar except for few seconds following positional change. During this period the responding was higher in the position closer to the to-be-recognize position. This relation between responding rate and the distance of the current position from the to-be-recognize position was also true for new unfamiliar positions. In the second phase the rats increased their responding with decreasing distance from the to-be-recognize region. These anticipatory responses depended on position of the object but not on its speed. Both versions of the task are suitable for studying spatial cognition and its neural substrate in rats. During the task rats recognize position of a distant object while their movement is restricted to a small operant chamber. This study was supported by grants GACR 309/09/0286, GAAV KJB500110904, MSMT 1M0517, LC554. Conference: 41st European Brain and Behaviour Society Meeting, Rhodes Island, Greece, 13 Sep - 18 Sep, 2009. Presentation Type: Poster Presentation Topic: Poster presentations Citation: Klement D, Levcik D, Duskova L and Nekovarova T (2009). Operant behavior of rats controlled by position of a distant object.. Conference Abstract: 41st European Brain and Behaviour Society Meeting. doi: 10.3389/conf.neuro.08.2009.09.193 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 10 Jun 2009; Published Online: 10 Jun 2009. * Correspondence: Daniel Klement, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Institute of Physiology, Prague, Czechia, dklement@biomed.cas.cz Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Daniel Klement David Levcik Lenka Duskova Tereza Nekovarova Google Daniel Klement David Levcik Lenka Duskova Tereza Nekovarova Google Scholar Daniel Klement David Levcik Lenka Duskova Tereza Nekovarova PubMed Daniel Klement David Levcik Lenka Duskova Tereza Nekovarova Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.