Matching to sample task

Working-memory enhancement by nicotine is seen using delayed matching-to-sample tasks in monkeys (Terry et ai. 1993). This benefit is reversed by scopolamine, suggesting that nicotine s beneficiai effect is due to increased central acetylcholine release and subsequent actions at muscarinic receptors. Nicotine appears to shift female rats toward a male-typical navigational strategy, using spatial cues rather than landmarks (Kanit et al. 1998). 

Buccafusco JJ, Jackson WJ, Terry AV Jr, Marsh KC, Decker MW, Arneric SP. (1995). Improvement in performance of a delayed matching-to-sample task by monkeys following ABT-418 a novel cholinergic channel activator for memory enhancement. Psychopharmacology (Berlin). 120(3) 256-66. 

However, in macaques, the R and S isomers of the potent h-HTj receptor antagonist RS-56812 enhanced certain aspects of task performance in a delayed matching-to-sample task. The differential sensitivity of the isomers paralleled the higher 5-HT3 receptor affinity [A. V. Terry et al. 1996). 

Buccafusco JJ, Jackson WJ Beneficial effects of nicotine administered prior to a delayed matching-to-sample task in the young and aged monkeys. Neurobiol Aging 12 233-238, 1991... 

Compared with focused attention, fewer studies have examined the effects of benzodiazepines on selective attention. Two studies have shown that performance on the Stroop test was impaired by lorazepam.119 131 Acute administration of triazolam and lorazepam produced dose-dependent decrements in response rate and accuracy in a simultaneous matching-to-sample task, which required subjects to determine which of two comparison visual stimuli was identical to the sample stimulus.148 161 The drug effects differed as a function of task difficulty, such that the benzodiazepine-induced impairment was reduced when discriminability of the non-matching stimulus was increased. 

The efficacy of a7-nicotinic receptor agonists has been assessed in multiple animal paradigms of learning and memory. For example, DMXB-A improves monkey performance on a delayed matching to sample task, an effect that persists for 24 h after drug administration (Briggs et al., 1996). DMXB-A... 

Other methods for measurement of memory function rely on explicit discrimination tasks. The matching to sample task described earlier is one example. In this paradigm, a sample stimulus is presented briefly to the subject. The subject must then pick the sample stimulus when subsequently presented with multiple stimulus options (i.e., the subject must match the sample). When delay intervals are imposed between the presentation of the sample stimulus and the subsequent presentation of multiple stimuli, the task becomes a memory task. In this case, the subject must remember the sample stimulus in order to perform correctly. As in the delayed alternation procedure. 

A task that tests attention and short-term memory is matching to sample. Monkeys are most typically used for these tasks, although other species are also capable of learning them. In a nonspatial matching-to-sample task, for example, the animal is presented with a stimulus (color, pattern, or object) that is then withdrawn. Following this, a set of stimuli is presented, and the animal indicates which of these is identical in some dimension to the sample stimulus. Delays of various durations may be instituted between the presentation of the sample and test stimuli to test short-term memory. Such tasks have been found to be sensitive to effects produced by lead in monkeys who were exposed to it in early life. 

Monkey (Baboon) 1 d 4hr/d 1400 M 1800M (increased response time in match to sample task) Geller etal. 1982... 

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