Learning to learn: Single session acquisition of new rules by freely-moving mice

Abstract

Learning from examples and adapting to new rules are fundamental attributes of human cognition. However, it is unclear what conditions allow for fast and successful learning, especially in non-human subjects. To determine how rapidly freely-moving mice can learn a new rule, we designed a two-alternative forced-choice visual discrimination paradigm in which the rules governing the task can change between sessions. We find that experienced animals can learn a new rule after being exposed to only five training and three testing trials. The propensity for single session learning improves over time and is accurately predicted based on animal experience and rule difficulty. After establishing procedural learning of a paradigm, mice continuously improve their performance on new rules. Thus, mice learn to learn.