Learning and behaviour in the absence of visual contact with the environment in rats

This work is focused on studying the formation and realisation of individual experience in the absence of vision. Rats (Long Evans) were trained to press levers in order to get food. After the training, neural activity and EEG were recorded during this behaviour. In this article we present the results of behaviour analysis of learning and performing the instrumental lever-press task in the absence of visual contact with the environment in rats (n=47) with an intact visual system and normal visual development. Group 1 was trained to perform the task in a new unfamiliar environment with eyes covered by light-proof spectacles, and Group 2 - with open eyes. It has been shown that the majority of the animals both, with closed and open eyes, learnt the task successfully, and no difference in the speed or dynamics of learning was observed. However, the dynamics of task performance (duration of acts in ms) during three experimental stages was different between the groups. These results are discussed in terms of system-evolutionary approach.

1. Aleksandrov Yu.I. Psikhofiziologicheskoe znachenie aktivnosti tsentral'nykh i perifericheskikh neironov v povedenii [Psychophysiological effects of central and peripheral neural activity in behavior]. Moscow, Nauka Publ., 1989. (In Russian).
2. Aleksandrov Yu.I., Aleksandrov I.O. Aktivnost' neironov zritel'noi i motornoi oblastei kory mozga pri osushchestvlenii povedencheskogo akta s otkrytymi i s zakrytymi glazami [Neuron activity in the visual and motor areas of the cerebral cortex during performance of a behavioral act with open and closed eyes]. Zhurnal vysshei nervnoi deyatel'nosti im. I.P. Pavlova [I.P. Pavlov Journal of Higher Nervous Activity (Russia)], 1981, vol. 31, no. 6, pp. 1179-1189. (In Russ., аbstr. in Engl.).
3. Aleksandrov Yu.I., Grechenko T.N., Gavrilov V.V., Gorkin A.G., Shevchenko D.G., Grinchenko Yu.V.,Aleksandrov I.O., Maksimova N.E., Bezdenezhnykh B.N., Bodunov M.V. Zakonomernosti formirovaniya i realizatsiya individual'nogo opyta // Zhurnal vysshei nervnoi deyatel'nosti im. I.P.Pavlova [I.P.Pavlov Journal of Higher Nervous Activity (Russia)], 1997, vol. 47, no. 2, pp. 243-260. (In Russ., аbstr. in Engl.).
4. Amedi A., Raz N., Pianka P., Malach R., Zohary E. Early 'visual' cortex activation correlates with superior verbal memory performance in the blind. Nature Neuroscience, 2003, vol. 6, no. 7, pp. 758-776. doi:10.1038/nn1072.
5. Barabanshchikov V.A., Zhegalo A.V. Registratsiya i analiz napravlennosti vzora cheloveka [Recording and analysis of eye-tracking in human]. Moscow, Institut Psikhologii RAN Publ., 2013. (In Russian).
6. Bavelier D., Neville H.J. Cross-modal plasticity: where and how? Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 2002, vol. 3, pp. 443-452. doi:10.1038/nrn848.
7. Brown R.E., Wong A.A. The influence of visual ability on learning and memory performance in 13 strains of mice. Learning and Memory, 2007, vol. 14, pp. 134-144. doi: 10.1101/lm.473907.
8. Cisek, P., Kalaska, J.F. Neural mechanisms for interacting with a world full of action choices. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 2010, vol. 33, pp. 269-298. doi: 10.1146/annurev.neuro.051508.135409.
9. Hill A.J., Best P.J. Effects of deafness and blindness on the spatial correlates of hippocampal unit activity in the rat. Experimental Neurology, 1981, vol. 74, pp. 204-217. doi: 10.1016/0014-4886(81)90159-X.
10. Lambert S., Sampaio E., Mauss Y., Scheiber C. Blindness and brain plasticity: contribution of mental imagery? An fMRI study. Cognitive Brain Research, 2004, vol. 20, pp. 1-11.
11. Marr D.C. Vision: A computational investigation into the human representation and processing of visual information. New York: Freeman, 1982.
12. Prusky G.T., Douglas R.M. Vision. In Whishaw I.Q., Kolb B. (eds.), The behaviour of the laboratory rat: a handbook with tests. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005, pp. 49-59.
13. Prusky G.T., Douglas R.M., Nelson L., Shabanpoor A., Sutherland J.R. Visual memory task for rats reveals an essential role for hippocampus and perirhinal cortex. PNAS, 2004, vol. 101, no. 14, pp. 5064–5068. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0308528101.
14. Prusky G.T., Harker K.T., Douglas R.M., Whishaw I.Q. Variation in visual acuity within pigmented, and between pigmented and albino rat strains. Behavioural Brain Research, 2002, vol. 136, pp. 339-348.
15. Quirk G.J., Muller R.U., Kubie J.L. The firing of hippocampal place cells in the dark depends on the rat’s recent experience. The Journal of Neuroscience, 1990, vol. 10, no.6, pp. 2008-2017.
16. Riesenhuber M., Poggio T. Neural mechanisms of object recognition. Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 2002, vol. 12, pp. 162–168.
17. Save E., Cressant A., Thinus-Blanc C., Poucet B. Spatial firing of hippocampal place cells in blind rats. The Journal of Neuroscience, 1998, vol. 18, no. 5, pp. 1818-1826.
18. Sergienko E.A. Vliyanie rannei zritel'noi deprivatsii na intersensornoe vzaimodeistvie [Effects of early visual deprivation on intersensory interaction ] // Psikhologicheskii zhurnal [Psychology Journal (Russia)], 1995, vol. 16, no. 5, pp. 32-49. (In Russian).
19. Shvyrkov V.B. Neirofiziologicheskoe izuchenie sistemnykh mekhanizmov povedeniya [Neurophysiological study of system mechanisms of behaviour]. Moscow, Nauka Publ., 1978. (In Russian).
20. Shvyrkov V.B. Izuchenie aktivnosti neironov kak metod psikhofiziologicheskogo issledovaniya povedeniya [The study of neural activity as a method of psychophysiological behavior research]. In Neirony v povedenii: sistemnye aspekty [Neurons during behaviour: the system aspects]. Moscow, Nauka Publ., 1986, pp. 6-25. (In Russian).
21. Shvyrkov V.B. Vvedenie v ob’ektivnuyu psikhologiyu: neironal'nye osnovy psikhiki [Introduction into objective psychology: neuronal bases of mind]. Moscow, IP RAN Publ., 1995.
22. Tonkiss J., Shultz P., Galler J.R. Long-Evans and Sprague-Dawley rats differ in their spatial navigation performance during ontogeny and at maturity. Dev. Psychobiol.,1992, vol. 25, no. 8, pp. 567-579.
23. Ungerleider L.G., Mishkin, M. Two cortical visual systems. In D.J. Ingle, M.A. Goodale, R.J.W. Mansfield (eds.) Analysis of Visual Behavior. Cambridge, MA, MIT Press, 1982, pp. 549–586.
24. Vermaercke B., Op de Beeck H. A multivariate approach reveals the behavioral templates underlying visual discrimination in rats. Current Biology, 2012, vol. 22, no. 1, pp. 50-55. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2011.11.041.
25. Whishaw I.Q., Hines D.J., Wallace D.G. Dead reckoning (path integration) requires the hippocampal formation: evidence from spontaneous exploration and spatial learning tasks in light (allothetic) and dark (idiothetic) tests. Behavioural Brain Research, 2001, vol. 127, pp. 49-69.
26. Zernicki B. Effects of binocular deprivation and specific experience in cats: behavioural, electrophysiological, and biochemical analysis. In Blazier M. (ed.) Brain mechanisms in memory and learning: from single neuron to man. New York, Raven Press, 1979, pp. 179-195.