1. Exploiting Novelty and Oddity Exploratory Preferences in Rodents to Study Multisensory Object Memory and Perception
- Author
-
Daniel Palmer, Krista A. Mitchnick, Samantha D. Creighton, and Boyer D. Winters
- Subjects
Cognitive science ,genetic structures ,Crossmodal ,Perception ,media_common.quotation_subject ,Novelty ,Representation (systemics) ,Cognitive neuroscience of visual object recognition ,Multisensory integration ,Context (language use) ,Psychology ,Object (computer science) ,media_common - Abstract
Many aspects of multisensory integration influence adaptive behaviour, but one of the most important of these is the ability to associate object features from different sensory modalities. Multisensory object processing contributes to the formation and storage in the brain of comprehensive object representations, which can contribute to efficient and effective behavioural responses. The current chapter reviews the literature on multisensory object processing in nonhuman animals, with a focus on recent rodent studies using tasks influenced by the spontaneous object recognition paradigm. We first discuss the development of tasks to assess crossmodal object recognition and multisensory object perception in rats and mice. Next, we review neurobiological studies that have used these tasks to implicate various brain areas and neurochemical systems in multisensory object processing. Finally, we consider these tasks in the context of rodent models of human disorders characterized by abnormal multisensory integration. Object-based multisensory tasks for rodents have proved particularly valuable in this area of study, demonstrating strong sensitivity to impairment, even in cases where other cognitive tests are unaffected. Future work with such tasks should continue to reveal novel, clinically relevant insights, as well as helping to elucidate the basic neural mechanisms of multisensory object representation.
- Published
- 2018
- Full Text
- View/download PDF