Matzel Louis D, Han Yu Ray, Grossman Henya, Karnik Meghana S, Patel Dave, Scott Nicholas, Specht Steven M, Gandhi Chetan C
Department of Psychology, Program in Behavioral Neuroscience, Rutgers University, Piscataway, New Jersey 08854, USA.
J Neurosci. 2003 Jul 23;23(16):6423-33. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.23-16-06423.2003.
Human performance on diverse tests of intellect are impacted by a "general" regulatory factor that accounts for up to 50% of the variance between individuals on intelligence tests. Neurobiological determinants of general cognitive abilities are essentially unknown, owing in part to the paucity of animal research wherein neurobiological analyses are possible. We report a methodology with which we have assessed individual differences in the general learning abilities of laboratory mice. Abilities of mice on tests of associative fear conditioning, operant avoidance, path integration, discrimination, and spatial navigation were assessed. Tasks were designed so that each made unique sensory, motor, motivational, and information processing demands on the animals. A sample of 56 genetically diverse outbred mice (CD-1) was used to assess individuals' acquisition on each task. Indicative of a common source of variance, positive correlations were found between individuals' performance on all tasks. When tested on multiple test batteries, the overall performance ranks of individuals were found to be highly reliable and were "normally" distributed. Factor analysis of learning performance variables determined that a single factor accounted for 38% of the total variance across animals. Animals' levels of native activity and body weights accounted for little of the variability in learning, although animals' propensity for exploration loaded strongly (and was positively correlated) with learning abilities. These results indicate that diverse learning abilities of laboratory mice are influenced by a common source of variance and, moreover, that the general learning abilities of individual mice can be specified relative to a sample of peers.
人类在各种智力测试中的表现受到一种“一般”调节因素的影响，该因素在智力测试中个体差异的方差中占比高达50%。一般认知能力的神经生物学决定因素基本上尚不清楚，部分原因是能够进行神经生物学分析的动物研究较少。我们报告了一种评估实验室小鼠一般学习能力个体差异的方法。评估了小鼠在联想恐惧条件反射、操作性回避、路径整合、辨别和空间导航测试中的能力。任务设计得使每个任务对动物都有独特的感官、运动、动机和信息处理要求。使用56只基因多样化的远交系小鼠（CD-1）样本评估个体在每项任务上的习得情况。表明存在共同方差来源的是，在所有任务中个体表现之间发现了正相关。当在多个测试组上进行测试时，发现个体的总体表现排名高度可靠且呈“正态”分布。对学习表现变量的因子分析确定，单个因子占动物总体方差的38%。动物的天生活动水平和体重在学习变异性中占比很小，尽管动物的探索倾向与学习能力密切相关（且呈正相关）。这些结果表明，实验室小鼠的多种学习能力受到共同方差来源的影响，此外，个体小鼠的一般学习能力可以相对于同组样本进行确定。
