How to do reward conditioning experiments in rats? -【Animal Modeling】

  Objective: To study the effects of three factors on the reward regulation experiment in rats: light stimulation of different colors, stimulation duration and day and night training, and provide a database of reward regulation experiment methods.

  Method: Divide into 3 batches of experiments: Experiment 1. Divide 8-week-old Wistar rats into 3 groups, a red light stimulation group, a yellow light stimulation group and a blue light stimulation group. Experiment 2 or 8 weeks-There are three groups of old Wistar rats, the lights are on for 10 seconds, the lights are on for 30 seconds, and the lights are on for 60 seconds. In experiment 3, 8-week-old Wistar rats were divided into daily groups (trained at 9 o'clock). Daytime: 00) and night group (training at 21:00 pm). All experimental animals received reward adjustment training to calculate the correct number of nasal cavity touches, the number of incorrect nasal cavity touches, and the percentage of correct nasal cavity touches.

  Result: Experiment 1: The correct number of nose touches, the wrong number of nose touches, the distance travelled and the average speed of the three groups of rats have no significant difference. Experiment 2: In the second set of 30 and 60 seconds, the correct nose touch was significantly higher than that of lighting that lasted 10 seconds (P\u003c0.05). On the first day of training, the correct nasal contact rate was higher on the 14th day of the 13th day and the 30th day than the 10th second lighting time (P\u003c0.001). Experiment 3: There was no significant difference in the number of correct nasal contacts and the percentage of correct nasal contacts between the two groups of rats.

  Conclusion: In reward adjustment, red, yellow and blue stimuli have similar reward prediction effects. Under the same light stimulation, the length of stimulation time will affect their academic performance. Properly extending the light stimulation time is conducive to the formation of conditioned reflex in rats. Day/night training does not affect the obtaining of reward conditions for rats.