Carr J A, Wilkie D M
Department of Psychology, Kenny Building, 2136 West Mall, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada V6T 1Z4.
Behav Processes. 1999 Mar 1;44(3):287-99. doi: 10.1016/s0376-6357(98)00036-9.
On daily time-place learning tasks animals can work for food at different spatial locations during sessions at different times of the day. In previous experiments rats tracked this pattern of food availability with ordinal timing-they learned to respond at the locations in the correct order each day. In contrast, pigeons used circadian timing. In this experiment rats received a mixture of morning session only days, afternoon session only days, and morning and afternoon session days. Under these conditions ordinal timing had low predictive ability, but circadian timing was potentially perfectly predictive of the location of food availability. We thought this procedural change might encourage rats to use circadian timing. However, we found little evidence that rats can use time of day information to track this daily spatiotemporal pattern of food availability. These results are suggestive of differences in the use of circadian clock consultation by rats and pigeons.
在日常时间-地点学习任务中，动物可以在一天中不同时间的实验环节里，在不同空间位置获取食物。在之前的实验中，大鼠通过顺序计时来追踪这种食物可得模式——它们学会了每天按正确顺序在各个位置做出反应。相比之下，鸽子使用的是昼夜节律计时。在本实验中，大鼠接受的实验安排包括仅上午实验环节的日子、仅下午实验环节的日子，以及上午和下午都有实验环节的日子。在这些条件下，顺序计时的预测能力较低，但昼夜节律计时对食物可得位置具有潜在的完美预测性。我们认为这种程序上的改变可能会促使大鼠使用昼夜节律计时。然而，我们几乎没有发现证据表明大鼠能够利用一天中的时间信息来追踪这种每日食物可得的时空模式。这些结果表明大鼠和鸽子在利用昼夜节律时钟方面存在差异。
