Investigating a race model account of executive control in rats with the countermanding paradigm

The countermanding paradigm investigates the ability to withhold a response when a stop signal is presented occasionally. The race model (Logan and Cowan, 1984) was developed to account for performance in humans and to estimate the stop signal response time (SSRT). This model has yet to be fully validated for countermanding performance in rats. Furthermore, response adjustments observed in human performance of the task have not been examined in rodents. Male Wistar rats were trained to respond to a visual stimulus (go signal) by pressing a lever below that stimulus, but to countermand the lever press (25% of trials) subsequent to an auditory tone (stop signal) presented after a variable delay. We found decreased inhibitory success as stop signal delay (SSD) increased and estimated a SSRT of 157 ms. As expected by the race model, response time (RT) of movements that escaped inhibition: (1) were faster than responses made in the absence of a stop signal; (2) lengthened with increasing SSD; and (3) were predictable by the race model. In addition, responses were slower after stop trial errors, suggestive of error monitoring. Amphetamine (AMPH) (0.25, 0.5 mg/kg) resulted in faster go trial RTs, baseline-dependent changes in SSRT and attenuated response adjustments. These findings demonstrate that the race model of countermanding performance, applied successfully in human and nonhuman primate models, can be employed in the countermanding performance of rodents. This is the first study to reveal response adjustments and AMPH-induced alterations of response adjustments in rodent countermanding.