Paired-Associate Learning Task (PAL) for Rats
Model 89541A-R
Adapted for rats, this is a hippocampal task. In humans, this task has proved to be highly effective for the early detection of Alzheimer's disease.
In humans a similar task has proved to be highly effective for the early detection of Alzheimer's disease (AD). A 1995 study using volunteers who thought they had memory issues [named the questionable dementia (QD) group] found that CANTAB PAL could discriminate who had AD at an early stage.
Fowler KS, Saling MM, Conway EL, Semple JS and Louis WJ (1995) Computerised delayed matching-to-sample and paired associate performance in the early detection of dementia. Applied Neuropsychology, 2, 72-78.
The graph shows individual subject results The 34 error cut-off (shown by red line) would have discriminated at the 6-month point who in the QD group would go on to receive AD diagnoses and who would not.
The translational potential of the paradigm can be seen by comparing human and mice DLG2 mutation studies. CANTAB PAL with people with DLG2 mutations produced a similar phenotypic profile to that observed by using the rodent PAL task with Dlg2-knockout mice.
In the PAL task for rodents, subjects learn and remember which of three objects goes in which of three spatial locations. On a given trial, two different objects are presented; one in its correct location; the other in an incorrect location. The subject must choose which stimulus is in the correct location. The task has been shown to be sensitive to cholinergic transmission and to hippocampal dysfunction and can dissociate glutamate from acetylcholine receptor function in the hippocampus.
Example Neural Systems Involved
- Hippocampus
- Cholinergic system
- NMDA receptors
- AMPA receptors
Clinical Areas Showing Impairment
- Alzheimer's
- Schizophrenia
Cognitive Functions Covered
- Learning and Memory
- Spatial memory
Typical Training Times (depends on strain and age)
- 1-2 weeks to train to touch the screen and initiate the task
- 34-45 sessions
Features
- A test of hippocampal function
- Particularly powerful for Alzheimer's research
- All training paradigms and advice included
- Using flexi-shelf improves performance by reducing impulsive responses from the rat
Science
Smith, S. M., Zequeira, S., Ravi, M., Johnson, S. A., Hampton, A. M., Ross, A. M., Pyon, W., Maurer, A. P., Bizon, J. L., & Burke, S. N. (2022). Age-related impairments on the touchscreen paired associates learning (PAL) task in male rats. Neurobiology of Aging, 109, 176–191. - Abstract
Shepherd, A., Zhang, T., Hoffmann, L. B., Zeleznikow-Johnston, A. M., Churilov, L., Hannan, A. J., & Burrows, E. L. (2021). A Preclinical Model of Computerized Cognitive Training: Touchscreen Cognitive Testing Enhances Cognition and Hippocampal Cellular Plasticity in Wildtype and Alzheimer’s Disease Mice. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 15(December), 1–15. - Abstract
Palmer, D., Dumont, J. R., Dexter, T. D., Prado, M. A. M., Finger, E., Bussey, T. J., & Saksida, L. M. (2021). Touchscreen cognitive testing: Cross-species translation and co-clinical trials in neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric disease. In Neurobiology of Learning and Memory (Vol. 182, p. 107443). - Abstract
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Nithianantharajah J, Komiyama NH, McKechanie A, et al. (2013) Synaptic scaffold evolution generated components of vertebrate cognitive complexity. Nat Neurosci.; 16(1):16-24.
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