Hataji Yuya, Goto Kazuhiro
Keio University, Tokyo, Japan.
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Tokyo, Japan.
Anim Cogn. 2024 Dec 2;27(1):81. doi: 10.1007/s10071-024-01920-3.
Some animals seek information to solve problems when they do not know the answer. Information-seeking behavior has become a key focus in studies of animal metacognition, providing insights into how animals monitor their own knowledge states. This behavior is thought to be a form of metacognitive control. Nevertheless, research on such metacognitive control has been biased toward specific taxa, such as primates, and has not been conducted in rodents, which are the most common experimental animals. This study examined whether mice exhibit information-seeking behavior during two visual discrimination tasks and what factors influence this behavior. We trained mice to discriminate between stimuli differing in luminance or orientation, with more minor differences increasing task difficulty. An information-seeking option was introduced during these tasks, allowing mice to eliminate distractor stimuli and ensure a correct response. The results indicated that mice sought information more frequently during difficult discriminations than easier ones. However, subsequent generalization tests revealed that the mice relied on environmental cues to utilize the information-seeking option. These findings suggest that information-seeking behavior in mice may not solely reflect metacognitive processes, and further investigation is needed to explore alternative explanations.
一些动物在不知道答案时会寻求信息来解决问题。信息寻求行为已成为动物元认知研究的关键焦点，为了解动物如何监控自己的知识状态提供了见解。这种行为被认为是元认知控制的一种形式。然而，关于这种元认知控制的研究一直偏向于特定的分类群，如灵长类动物，而尚未在作为最常见实验动物的啮齿动物中进行。本研究考察了小鼠在两项视觉辨别任务中是否表现出信息寻求行为以及哪些因素会影响这种行为。我们训练小鼠区分亮度或方向不同的刺激，差异越小任务难度越大。在这些任务中引入了一个信息寻求选项，使小鼠能够消除干扰刺激并确保做出正确反应。结果表明，与较容易的辨别相比，小鼠在困难辨别时更频繁地寻求信息。然而，随后的泛化测试表明，小鼠依靠环境线索来使用信息寻求选项。这些发现表明，小鼠的信息寻求行为可能并不完全反映元认知过程，需要进一步研究以探索其他解释。
