Degrading stimuli by reducing image resolution impairs performance in a rodent continuous performance test

Adrienne C DeBrosse; Ye Li; Robyn Wiseman; Racine Ross; Sy'Keria Garrison; Henry L Hallock; James C Barrow; Keri Martinowich; Gregory V Carr

doi:10.1016/j.beproc.2023.104941

Degrading stimuli by reducing image resolution impairs performance in a rodent continuous performance test

Behav Processes. 2023 Oct:212:104941. doi: 10.1016/j.beproc.2023.104941. Epub 2023 Sep 4.

Authors

Adrienne C DeBrosse¹, Ye Li¹, Robyn Wiseman², Racine Ross³, Sy'Keria Garrison⁴, Henry L Hallock¹, James C Barrow⁵, Keri Martinowich⁶, Gregory V Carr⁷

Affiliations

¹ Lieber Institute for Brain Development, Johns Hopkins University Medical Campus, Baltimore, MD, USA.
² Department of Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
³ Lieber Institute for Brain Development, Johns Hopkins University Medical Campus, Baltimore, MD, USA; Kenyon College, Gambier, OH, USA.
⁴ Lieber Institute for Brain Development, Johns Hopkins University Medical Campus, Baltimore, MD, USA; Fayetteville State University, Fayetteville, NC, USA.
⁵ Lieber Institute for Brain Development, Johns Hopkins University Medical Campus, Baltimore, MD, USA; Department of Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
⁶ Lieber Institute for Brain Development, Johns Hopkins University Medical Campus, Baltimore, MD, USA; Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Solomon H. Snyder Department of Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
⁷ Lieber Institute for Brain Development, Johns Hopkins University Medical Campus, Baltimore, MD, USA; Department of Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA. Electronic address: greg.carr@libd.org.

PMID: 37673291
PMCID: PMC10591849 (available on 2024-10-01)
DOI: 10.1016/j.beproc.2023.104941

Abstract

Attention is a cognitive domain often disrupted in neuropsychiatric disorders and continuous performance tests (CPTs) are common clinical assays of attention. In CPTs, participants produce a behavioral response to target stimuli and refrain from responding to non-target stimuli. Performance in CPTs is measured as the ability to discriminate between targets and non-targets. Rodent versions of CPTs (rCPTs) have been validated with both anatomical and pharmacological studies, providing a translational platform for understanding attention function. In humans, stimulus degradation, the inclusion of visual noise in the image to reduce resolution, in CPTs impairs performance. Reduced image contrast, changes in the relative luminescence of elements in the image, has been used in rCPTs to test similar constructs, but, to our knowledge, reduced image resolution has not been tested in an rCPT. In this study, we tested multiple levels of stimulus degradation in a touchscreen version of the rCPT in mice. We found that stimulus degradation significantly decreased performance in males and females. Specifically, we found decreased stimulus discrimination and increases in hit reaction time and reaction time variability. These findings are in line with the effects of stimulus degradation in human studies. These data extend the utility and translational value of the family of rCPTs by demonstrating that stimulus degradation in the form of reduced image resolution produces qualitatively similar behavioral responses in mice as those in previous human studies.

Keywords: Attention; Behavior; Cognition; Reaction time.

Grants and funding

R56 MH126233/MH/NIMH NIH HHS/United States