Yoking

In a yoked experiment, yoked (slave) animals receive stimuli and rewards not according to their behaviour, but according to the behaviour of another (master) rat.

When you run a single copy of the FiveChoice task, one rat can act as a master rat. If you are not interested in yoking, then every rat is its own master rat and there are no yoked (slave) animals.

Here, you may set up up to 8 yoked animals that will experience exactly the same stimuli as the master rat (the one you configure in the normal way).

First refer to the trial format for master rats and ensure you understand it. Slave recording is detailed below. Note that nothing a yoked subject does has any behavioural consequences. Red text indicates responses not possible for master rats. Note that some odd sequences are possible: for example, it's even possible for the yoked rat to collect reward before making a correct/incorrect response.

State name	Description	State of the box	Consequence of nosepoking at the front panel (one of the five holes)	Consequence of nosepoking at the rear (food) panel	Consequence of time passing
NOTSTARTED	Not started yet. Awaiting experimenter to start task.	Darkness.	-	-	-
PRESTIM_PLEASEPUSH	Task begins here. (For the first trial, a free pellet is given and the trial number is initially set to 0.) Rat must respond to rear panel to initiate the trial.	Houselight on. Traylight on (if used).	Score premature response. No other consequence.	Recorded as attempt to start new trial (and many such responses may potentially be recorded).	-
POSTSTIM_PLEASEPUSH	Post-stimulus punishment timeout over. Rat must respond to rear panel to initiate new trial.	Houselight on. Traylight on (if used).	Score perseverative response. No other consequence.	Recorded as attempt to start new trial (and many such responses may potentially be recorded).	-
INITIAL_PAUSE	Trials begin here. Trial number incremented. Variable time before stimulus is presented (sometimes called the "ITI").	Houselight on.	Score premature response. No other consequence.	Score perseverative panel-push. No other consequence.	-
STIM_ON	Stimulus presented briefly. Opportunity to respond.	Houselight on. One target hole lit.	If this is the first front panel response since stimulus presentation, score as correct or incorrect. Second and subsequent responses are scored as perseverative.	Score perseverative panel-push. No other consequence.	If the yoked rat has not responded to the front panel within the limited hold period, or before the next trial starts, score an omission.
STIM_OFF	Stimulus has gone off, but opportunity to respond remains.	Houselight on.	If this is the first front panel response since stimulus presentation, score as correct or incorrect. Second and subsequent responses are scored as perseverative.	Score perseverative panel-push. No other consequence.	If the yoked rat has not responded to the front panel within the limited hold period, or before the next trial starts, score an omission.
AWAITING_COLLECT	Successful response; subject has been rewarded. Awaiting food collection (which will also initiate the next trial).	Houselight on. Traylight on (if used).	If this is the first front panel response since stimulus presentation, score as correct or incorrect. Second and subsequent responses are scored as perseverative.	First such response: score as reward collection for latency purposes. Second and subsequent responses are recorded individually.	If the yoked rat has not responded to the front panel within the limited hold period, or before the next trial starts, score an omission.
PRESTIM_TIMEOUT	Rat is being punished for a premature nosepoke to the front panel.	Darkness.	Score premature response. No other consequence.	Recorded. No other consequence.	-
POSTSTIM_TIMEOUT	Rat is being punished for an incorrect response, or a perseverative response.	Darkness.	If this is the first front panel response since stimulus presentation, score as correct or incorrect. Second and subsequent responses are scored as perseverative.	Recorded. No other consequence.	If the yoked rat has not responded to the front panel within the limited hold period, or before the next trial starts, score an omission.
FINISHED	Rat finished the task	Darkness.	-	-	-
ABORTED	User aborted the task	Darkness.	-	-	-