A “delay discounting” method – selection of food reinforcement on the basis of its value and the delay in receiving it – was used to identify animals with high and low impulsivity. Rats preferring an immediate but low-value reinforcement were assigned to the high impulsivity group and those able to restrain their behavior and receive the valuable reinforcement constituted the low-impulsivity group; some animals showed mixed-type reactions. In a Morris water maze, the three groups of animals found the platform hidden beneath the water at different times, swimming different distances and at different speeds. These differences, however, were only apparent on overall (for all trials and days) comparisons of measures and were not significant when compared on individual training days and numbers of trials. These results provide evidence that the differences between groups may be due to differences in the overall motor activity of the animals without any significant difference in the manifestations of long-term or working memory.
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Translated from Zhurnal Vysshei Nervnoi Deyatel’nosti imeni I. P. Pavlova, Vol. 66, No. 1, pp. 82–91, January–February, 2016.
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Zaichenko, M.I., Bazhenova, D.A., Grigor’yan, G.A. et al. Does Impulsivity Influence the Operation of Long-Term and Working Memory in Rats?. Neurosci Behav Physi 47, 427–434 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11055-017-0416-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11055-017-0416-0