Sequential behavior in the rat: role of skill and attention

The serial reaction time task (SRTT) is a well-established experimental tool to study cognitive and neural mechanisms of sequential performance in humans. We have recently developed a rodent version of the human serial reaction time task, in which rats have to respond to visual stimuli by nose-poking into one of four spatial locations in order to obtain food reward. In this task, rats display superior performance under sequential as compared to random conditions of stimulus presentation. Specifically, the subjects are able to profit from sequential regularities in terms of faster reaction times and higher response accuracy. Here, we studied the effects of violating a single stimulus in rats, which had been intensively trained under sequential conditions, and we asked whether these subjects, when confronted with sequence violations, still attend to the actual stimulus order (that is, show correct responses), or whether their behavior has become fully automated (leading to specific incorrect responses to violated stimulus positions). In two independent experiments using partly differing instrumental set-ups, we found that the responses to non-cued violations of single stimulus positions were mostly correct, that is, the animals were apparently attending to the stimuli. Nevertheless, these reaction times were slowed, which probably reflects cognitive resources necessary to respond correctly to the unexpected irregularities. When quantifying the minority of responses, which were incorrect, we found that most of them were directed to the position, where the stimulus would have appeared if the sequence had not been violated. These responses were faster than the correct ones (to the violated stimulus), which indicates that sequential responding had become partly automated. Together, our data show that both, attention and skill play a role for sequential performance in our SRT task, and that they can be dissected by quantification of specific response types. In future work, the neural correlates underlying these functional mechanisms will have to be addressed.