Attentional performance of (C57BL/6Jx129Sv)F2 mice in the five-choice serial reaction time task

Impaired attention is evident in several neurological and psychiatric disorders. In the present study, attentional capabilities were measured in the operant five-choice serial reaction time task (5-CSRTT) in male (C57BL/6Jx129Sv)F2 hybrid (B6129F2) mice. Main aims were to validate and standardize the test in these mice: to setup procedures, measure potential beneficial effects of sub-chronic nicotine in degraded versions of the 5-CSRTT (by decreasing stimulus duration, inducing white noise and making the stimuli unpredictable) and study disruptive effects of additional administration of the muscarinic antagonist scopolamine. During the baseline pre-nicotine sessions, the B6129F2 mice attained a very good performance in the test (95% accuracy). As stimulus duration was reduced from 2 s to 1 s, response accuracy of the mice decreased. Mice treated with nicotine (0.16 mg/kg) attained significantly higher response accuracy and had a lower percentage of incorrect responses in comparison with the solvent-treated animals. No further beneficial effects of nicotine were found. Reduced response accuracy was also obtained when stimulus duration was reduced from 1 s to 0.5 s and when a variable intertrial interval was introduced. Noise interpolation between trials did not impair performance. Finally, scopolamine (0.16 mg/kg) disrupted attentional functioning. Although most studies have been performed in rats, these results add to the existing evidence that the 5-CSRTT can also be used to assess attentional performance in mice. This offers the opportunity to test transgenic and knockout mice with similar background as the B6129F2 as animal models of psychiatric and neurological diseases.