Prenatal Alcohol Exposure Disrupts Performance in a Differential Reinforcement of Low Rates Task Specifically in Adolescent Male Rats.

Prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) can lead to a wide range of adverse effects in humans, including impaired self-control and increased impulsive behavior. Deficits in self-control can interfere with academic performance and have lasting impacts. In the present study, a rodent model of PAE was used to assess impulsivity through operant conditioning.

Fewer peak trials per session facilitate acquisition of peak responding despite elimination of response rate differences.

It has been shown in previous research [Kaiser, D.H., 2008.

The proportion of fixed interval trials to probe trials affects acquisition of the peak procedure fixed interval timing task.

A common procedure for studying the ability of animals to time is the peak procedure. With the peak procedure, animals are first trained on a fixed interval schedule (i.e.

Value transfer across odor stimuli using probability of reinforcement in the rat.

In a series of experiments value transfer across odor stimuli using probability of reinforcement was demonstrated in rats. Rats were trained with the following pairs of simple simultaneous discriminations A(100) B(0) and C(50) D(0) where the letter represents a particular scent mixed with sand presented in a cup and the number in parentheses represents the probability of reinforcement given that the rats dug to the bottom of the cup. In test, the rats were confronted with a choice between the B and D stimuli and (in experiments 2 and 3) the rats preferred to dig in the B stimulus providing evidence for value transfer using procedures similar to those that have been used in the pigeon literature.

Interval timing with gaps: gap ambiguity as an alternative to temporal decay.

C. V. Buhusi, D.

Timing in pigeons: effects of the similarity between intertrial interval and gap in a timing signal.

Previous research suggests that when a fixed interval is interrupted (known as the gap procedure), pigeons tend to reset memory and start timing from 0 after the gap. However, because the ambient conditions of the gap typically have been the same as during the intertrial interval (ITI), ambiguity may have resulted. In the present experiment, the authors found that when ambient conditions during the gap were similar to the ITI, pigeons tended to reset memory, but when ambient conditions during the gap were different from the ITI, pigeons tended to stop timing, retain the duration of the stimulus in memory, and add to that time when the stimulus reappeared.