Music discrimination by rats

Abstract

This experiment tried to evaluate if rats can discriminate complex auditory stimuli. Eight rats of Wistar strain were used. Subjects were trained in the Skinner box for food. In Phase 1, half rats were given Beatles Yesterday as S+ and white noise S-. For the rest, reward contingency was reversed. Both groups learned the task successfully. In Phase 2, S- was changed to a Mozart for both groups; S + remained unchanged. Both groups became to respond to correct stimulus, but the Beatles S+ rats took twice longer than the noise S+ rats, showing discrimination between music and noise is easy, but between different melodies is more difficult. In Phase 3, Beatles Yesterday and Yesterday played by Iwaki, the experimenter, were given. Seven rats achieved more than 70 percent correct response, showing that rats were able to discriminate two Yesterdays played by different players. These results suggest that rat can discriminate complex music stimuli, i. e., between two different melodies and between the same melody played by two different players.