The differences in learning abilities between spontaneously hypertensive (SHR) and Wistar normotensive rats are cue dependent.

We examined the performance of spontaneously hypertensive (SHR) and Wistar normotensive (NT) rats in acquisition, retention after a 2-month interval, and reversal learning in two tasks: simultaneous brightness discrimination (Experiment I) and conditional discrimination of directional locomotor responses (Experiment II). In both tasks food reinforcement was used. In Experiment I both SHR and NT groups comprised younger (3-month-old) and older (10-month-old) rats. In each experimental stage SHRs of both age groups mastered the task earlier and made fewer errors than the respective NT groups. Reversal learning took longer than acquisition of discrimination in both age groups of NT rats. Conversely, reversal learning was an easier task for SHR. In Experiment II only younger rats were used. The forced turn at the start in the modified T-maze was utilized as the cue to guide performance at the choice point of the maze. In acquisition and retention, rats were trained to select at the choice point the arm in the same direction as in the forced turn; in the reversal, opposite contingencies were applied. At all stages the choice accuracy of SHR was the same as that in NT rats. The contrasting findings of Experiment I and Experiment II indicate that SHR learned better than NT when exteroceptive visual stimuli were used, but performed at the same level as NT rats in the task where interoceptive kinesthetic cues were relevant. We suggest that SHR pay more attention to visual stimuli than NT rats.