PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - David B. Kastner
AU  - Eric A. Miller
AU  - Zhounan Yang
AU  - Demetris K. Roumis
AU  - Daniel F. Liu
AU  - Loren M. Frank
AU  - Peter Dayan
TI  - Spatial preferences account for inter-animal variability during the continual learning of a dynamic cognitive task
AID  - 10.1101/808006
DP  - 2020 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 808006
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/10/18/808006.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/10/18/808006.full
AB  - Individual animals perform tasks in different ways, yet the nature and origin of that variability is poorly understood. In the context of spatial memory tasks, variability is often interpreted as resulting from differences in memory ability, but the validity of this interpretation is seldom tested since we lack a systematic approach for identifying and understanding factors that make one animal’s behavior different than another. Here we identify such factors in the context of spatial alternation in rats, a task often described as relying solely on memory of past choices. We combine hypothesis-driven behavioral design and reinforcement learning modeling to identify spatial preferences that, when combined with memory, support learning of a spatial alternation task. Identifying these preferences allows us to capture differences among animals, including differences in overall learning ability. Our results show that to understand the complexity of behavior requires quantitative accounts of the preferences of each animal.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.