The automated touchscreen operant chamber for rats and mice allows for the assessment of multiple cognitive domains within the same testing environment. This protocol presents the Location Discrimination task (LD) and the Trial-Unique delayed Nonmatching-to-Location task (TUNL), which both assess memory for location. On these tasks, animals are trained to a pre-defined criterion during ~20-40 daily sessions. In LD-sessions, touching the same location on the screen is rewarded on consecutive trials, followed by a reversal of location-reward contingencies. TUNL, a working memory task, requires animals to “non-match” to a sample location after a delay. In both LD and TUNL spatial similarity can be varied, allowing assessment of “pattern separation” ability, a function thought to be performed by the dentate gyrus. These tasks are therefore particularly useful in animal models of hippocampal, and specifically dentate gyrus function, but additionally permit discernment of changes in pattern separation from those in working memory.
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