Levi Amir, Aviv Noam, Stark Eran
Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 6997801, Israel.
Sagol School of Neuroscience, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 6997801, Israel.
PNAS Nexus. 2024 May 19;3(5):pgae203. doi: 10.1093/pnasnexus/pgae203. eCollection 2024 May.
Learning from examples and adapting to new circumstances are fundamental attributes of human cognition. However, it is unclear what conditions allow for fast and successful learning, especially in nonhuman subjects. To determine how rapidly freely moving mice can learn a new discrimination criterion (DC), we design a two-alternative forced-choice visual discrimination paradigm in which the DCs governing the task can change between sessions. We find that experienced animals can learn a new DC after being exposed to only five training and three testing trials. The propensity for single session learning improves over time and is accurately predicted based on animal experience and criterion difficulty. After establishing the procedural learning of a paradigm, mice continuously improve their performance in new circumstances. Thus, mice learn to learn.
从示例中学习并适应新环境是人类认知的基本属性。然而，尚不清楚何种条件能实现快速且成功的学习，尤其是在非人类受试者中。为了确定自由活动的小鼠能多快学会新的辨别标准（DC），我们设计了一种二选一强制选择视觉辨别范式，其中控制任务的DC在不同实验环节之间可以改变。我们发现，有经验的动物在仅接受五次训练和三次测试试验后就能学会新的DC。单次实验学习的倾向会随着时间提高，并且可以根据动物的经验和标准难度进行准确预测。在确立了一种范式的程序学习后，小鼠在新环境中持续提高它们的表现。因此，小鼠学会了学习。
