広島大学総合科学部紀要. IV, 理系編 Volume 29
published_at 2003-12

ピーク法によるタイミング行動の形成と時間的分布

Shaping of interval timing behavior by the peak procedure and response temporal distribution
Nishimura Yuuki
Takahashi Erika
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Abstract
Two experiments examined interval timing behavior in mice and rats. In the first experiment, subjectswere mice, and in the second one they were rats. The animals were trained using the peak procedure that was avariant of a discrete trial fixed interval (DT-FI) schedule. On food trails, the first lever press response more than30-s after tone stimulus onset terminated the stimulus and presented a food pellet. On empty trials, the tonestimulus lasted for 90-s with no food. The temporal distributions of responses in mice and rats were calculatedby averaging responses over 180 empty trials. Training progressed in both animals in a way similar to Gaussianfunction curve. Peak time, which shows the peak of regression curve fitting the Gaussian function, correspondedto 30-s with wide variability in both experiments. This proved to be a good index to the interval timing behavior.In the second experiment, we considered various regression fitting variables, especially concerning the numberof trials. Temporal distribution seems to be affected by various factors including individual differences intraining sessions.
Keywords
mouse
rat
timing
behavior
peak procedure
peak time