Bushnell Philip J., Benignus Vernon A., Case Martin W.
Neurotoxicology Division, National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory, Office of Research and Development, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 27711, Research Triangle Park, NC, USA
Behav Processes. 2003 Aug 29;64(1):121-129. doi: 10.1016/s0376-6357(03)00146-3.
Animal models of human cognitive processes are essential for studying the neurobiological mechanisms of these processes and for developing therapies for intoxication and neurodegenerative diseases. A discrete-trial signal detection task was developed for assessing sustained attention in rats; a previous study showed that rats perform as predicted from the human sustained attention literature. In this study, we measured the behavior of humans in a task formally homologous to the task for rats, varying two of the three parameters previously shown to affect performance in rats. Signal quality was manipulated by varying the increment in the intensity of a lamp. Trial rate was varied among values of 4, 7, and 10 trials/min. Accuracy of signal detection was quantified by the proportion of correct detections of the signal (P(hit)) and the proportion of false alarms (P(fa), i.e. incorrect responses on non-signal trials). As with rats, P(hit) in humans increased with increasing signal intensity whereas P(fa) did not. Like rats, humans were sensitive to the trial rate, though the change in behavior depended on the sex of the subject. These data show that visual signal detection behavior in rats and humans is controlled similarly by two important parameters, and suggest that this task assesses similar processes of sustained attention in the two species.
人类认知过程的动物模型对于研究这些过程的神经生物学机制以及开发中毒和神经退行性疾病的治疗方法至关重要。为评估大鼠的持续注意力，开发了一种离散试验信号检测任务；先前的一项研究表明，大鼠的表现符合人类持续注意力文献中的预测。在本研究中，我们让人类在一项与大鼠任务形式同源的任务中进行行为测试，改变了先前显示会影响大鼠表现的三个参数中的两个。通过改变灯强度的增量来操纵信号质量。试验速率在4、7和10次试验/分钟之间变化。通过正确检测信号的比例（击中概率，P(hit)）和误报比例（虚报概率，P(fa)，即在无信号试验中的错误反应）来量化信号检测的准确性。与大鼠一样，人类的P(hit)随着信号强度的增加而增加，而P(fa)则不然。与大鼠一样，人类对试验速率敏感，尽管行为变化取决于受试者的性别。这些数据表明，大鼠和人类的视觉信号检测行为受两个重要参数的类似控制，并表明该任务评估了两个物种中类似的持续注意力过程。
