Terry P, Herbert B A, Oakley D A
Department of Psychology, University College London, U.K.
Behav Brain Res. 1989 May 1;33(1):105-9. doi: 10.1016/s0166-4328(89)80023-3.
Behavioural flexibility in decorticate rats was examined by testing response transfer in an obstructed alleyway. In the first experiment, rats were trained to push a ball out of a cylindrical alleyway in order to gain access to the goal box. When this 'push' habit was prevented by blocking forward movement of the ball, decorticate rats were much quicker than sham-operated rats in successfully developing the novel clearance response of pulling the ball into the start box. Both groups were subsequently able to reverse effectively between responses. In a second experiment, sham-operated and decorticate rats were first shaped to pull the ball clear from the alleyway, and then required to adopt a push-type clearance response when movement of the ball towards the start box was prevented. Here, the decorticates showed difficulty both in learning to pull the ball out of the alley and in transferring to a push-type clearance response, but having transferred they coped well with subsequent reversals. This asymmetrical pattern of transfer results is not readily attributed to response preference and raises the possibility that, in some situations at least, decorticated animals may show greater behavioural flexibility than had previously been supposed.
通过在受阻的小巷中测试反应转换，研究了去皮质大鼠的行为灵活性。在第一个实验中，训练大鼠将球推出圆柱形小巷以进入目标箱。当通过阻止球向前移动来阻止这种“推”的习惯时，去皮质大鼠在成功形成将球拉回起始箱的新清除反应方面比假手术大鼠快得多。随后两组都能够有效地在反应之间转换。在第二个实验中，先训练假手术大鼠和去皮质大鼠将球从小巷中拉出来，然后当球向起始箱的移动被阻止时，要求它们采用推式清除反应。在这里，去皮质大鼠在学习将球从小巷中拉出以及转换为推式清除反应方面都表现出困难，但在转换后它们能很好地应对随后的反应逆转。这种不对称的转换结果模式不容易归因于反应偏好，这增加了一种可能性，即至少在某些情况下，去皮质动物可能表现出比以前认为的更大的行为灵活性。
