Fleming Stephen A, Dilger Ryan N
Piglet Nutrition & Cognition Laboratory, Department of Animal Sciences, University of Illinois, 1207 West Gregory Drive, Urbana, IL 61801, USA; Neuroscience Program, University of Illinois, 505 South Goodwin Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801, USA.
Piglet Nutrition & Cognition Laboratory, Department of Animal Sciences, University of Illinois, 1207 West Gregory Drive, Urbana, IL 61801, USA; Neuroscience Program, University of Illinois, 505 South Goodwin Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801, USA; Division of Nutritional Sciences, University of Illinois, 905 South Goodwin Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801, USA.
Behav Brain Res. 2017 Mar 15;321:50-60. doi: 10.1016/j.bbr.2016.12.027. Epub 2016 Dec 29.
Novelty preference paradigms have been widely used to study recognition memory and its neural substrates. The piglet model continues to advance the study of neurodevelopment, and as such, tasks that use novelty preference will serve especially useful due to their translatable nature to humans. However, there has been little use of this behavioral paradigm in the pig, and previous studies using the novel object recognition paradigm in piglets have yielded inconsistent results. The current study was conducted to determine if piglets were capable of displaying a novelty preference. Herein a series of experiments were conducted using novel object recognition or location in 3- and 4-week-old piglets. In the novel object recognition task, piglets were able to discriminate between novel and sample objects after delays of 2min, 1h, 1 day, and 2 days (all P<0.039) at both ages. Performance was sex-dependent, as females could perform both 1- and 2-day delays (P<0.036) and males could perform the 2-day delay (P=0.008) but not the 1-day delay (P=0.347). Furthermore, 4-week-old piglets and females tended to exhibit greater exploratory behavior compared with males. Such performance did not extend to novel location recognition tasks, as piglets were only able to discriminate between novel and sample locations after a short delay (P>0.046). In conclusion, this study determined that piglets are able to perform the novel object and location recognition tasks at 3-to-4 weeks of age, however performance was dependent on sex, age, and delay.
新颖性偏好范式已被广泛用于研究识别记忆及其神经基础。仔猪模型不断推动神经发育研究的进展，因此，由于其对人类具有可转化性，使用新颖性偏好的任务将特别有用。然而，这种行为范式在猪身上的应用很少，之前在仔猪中使用新颖物体识别范式的研究结果并不一致。本研究旨在确定仔猪是否能够表现出新颖性偏好。在此，我们对3周龄和4周龄的仔猪进行了一系列使用新颖物体识别或位置识别的实验。在新颖物体识别任务中，两个年龄段的仔猪在延迟2分钟、1小时、1天和2天后（所有P<0.039）都能够区分新颖物体和样本物体。表现存在性别差异，雌性仔猪能够完成1天和2天的延迟任务（P<0.036），雄性仔猪能够完成2天的延迟任务（P=0.008），但不能完成1天的延迟任务（P=0.347）。此外，与雄性相比，4周龄的仔猪和雌性仔猪往往表现出更强的探索行为。这种表现并没有延伸到新颖位置识别任务，因为仔猪仅在短时间延迟后才能区分新颖位置和样本位置（P>0.046）。总之，本研究确定3至4周龄的仔猪能够完成新颖物体和位置识别任务，但其表现取决于性别、年龄和延迟时间。
