The ability of different strains of rats to acquire a visual nonmatching-to-sample task

Abstract

Rats of four different strains (DA, Fischer 344, PVG hooded, and Sprague-Dawley) were trained on a nonspatial recognition task. The task, delayed-nonmatching-to-sample, required the rat to select between two complex stimuli on the basis of their relative familiarity. The four strains differed markedly. The two pigmented strains (DA and PVG) were significantly better than the two albino strains (Fischer 344 and Sprague-Dawley); among the pigmented strains, the DA rats consistently had the higher scores. The Fischer 344 rats had the lowest scores, and their pattern of errors indicated that they were performing in a qualitatively different manner from the other three strains. A control test with the two pigmented strains confirmed that they were able to use visual cues to solve the task. The results point to the likely value of the DA strain for such experiments and highlight potential confounding variables arising from the use of different strains for psychobiological research.