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Human and Rat Behavioral Data in Auditory Parametric Working Memory Tasks
Large behavioral dataset (> 2million trials) from the first ever rodent Auditory Parametric Working Memory task, initially presented in Akrami et al. 2018 [1]. The dataset contains behavior for 19 rats across a combined 2,540,006 trials, and 11 human subjects across 9,507 trials.
README for human auditory behavioral data
The accompanying file `human_auditory.csv` contains all behavioral data from the human auditory task, first presented in Akrami et al. 2018 [1]. The data set contains behavior for 11 human subjects across a combined 9507 trials. Data was collected from each subject within a single session. Relevant portions from the Methods section of the paper ("Human subjects (auditory)" and "Human auditory behavior") are reproduced below:
"11 human subjects (8 males and 3 females, aged 22–40) were tested and all gave their informed consent. Participants were paid to be part of the study and were naive to the main conclusions of the study. The consent procedure and the rest of the protocol were approved by the Princeton University Institutional Review Board."
"In this experiment, subjects received, in each trial, a pair of sounds played from ear-surrounding noise-cancelling headphones (brand 233621-H501). The subject self-initiated each trial by pressing the space bar on the keyboard. The first sound was then presented together with a green square on the left side of a computer monitor in front of the subject. This was followed by a delay period, indicated by ‘WAIT!’ on the screen, then the second sound was presented together with a red square on the right side of the screen. At the end of the second stimulus and after the go cue, subjects were required to compare the two sounds and decide which one was louder, then indicate their choice by pressing the ‘k’ key with their right hand (second was louder) or the ‘s’ key with their left hand (first was louder). Written feedback about the correctness of their response was provided on the screen, for individual trials as well as the average performance updated every ten trials."
Data description, by column:
1) subject_id: The ID of the human subject (11 total subjects, #1-11)
2) trial: The trial number
3) stim_pair: The ID of the stimulus pair used in the trial. There are 10 different pairs used. Pairs 1-5 have stimulus A > B, and so are rewarded on the right side; pairs 6-10 have stimulus A < B, and so are rewarded on the left side. The values of stimuli A and B corresponding to each pair can be inferred from the "s_a" and "s_b" columns, and are also written explicitly below (see Extended Data Figures 1E and 3B [1])
4) s_a: The loudness of stimulus A (pink noise), in decibels (dB)
5) s_b: The loudness of stimulus B (pink noise), in decibels (dB)
6) choice: The choice made by the subject, where Left=0 and Right=1
7) correct_side: The rewarded (correct) side, where Left=0 and Right=1
8) reward: If the subject was rewarded (made the correct choice), where No Reward=0 and Reward=1
9) delay: The delay, in seconds, between the presentation of stimuli A and B (either 2, 4, 6, or 8 seconds)
Stimulus Pairs:
1: (62.7, 60); 2: (65.4, 62.7); 3: (68.1, 65.4); 4: (70.8, 68.1); 5: (73.5, 70.8);
6: (60, 62.7); 7: (62.7, 65.4); 8: (65.4, 68.1); 9: (68.1, 70.8); 10: (70.8, 73.5)
README for rat behavioral data
The accompanying file `rat_behavior.csv` contains all behavioral data from the rat auditory task, first presented in Akrami et al. 2018 [1]. The data set contains behavior for 19 rats across a combined 2540006 trials. Data from rats trained on "delay" intervals of longer than 8 seconds are omitted, as this is an area of continuing research. Relevant portions from the Methods section of the paper ("Rat subjects" and "Rat behavior") are reproduced below:
"A total of 33 male Long–Evans rats (Rattus norvegicus) between the ages of 6 and 24 months were used for this study. Of these, 25 rats were used for behavioural assessments ... Animal use procedures were approved by the Princeton University Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee and carried out in accordance with National Institutes of Health standards."
Data description, by column:
1) subject_id: The name of the rat (19 total subjects)
2) session: The session number, where 1 is the first session of training
3) trial: The trial number within a session, where 1 is the first trial
4) s_a: The loudness of stimulus A (pink noise) in decibels (dB) (NaN during training_stage 1)
5) s_b: The loudness of stimulus B (pink noise) in decibels (dB) (NaN during training_stage 1)
6) choice: The choice made by the rat, where Left=0 and Right=1 (and Mistrial=NaN)
7) correct_side: The correct side, where Left=0 and Right=1
8) hit: If the rat made the correct choice, where Incorrect=0 and Correct=1 (and Mistrial=NaN)
9) delay: The duration of the delay between the end of Tone A and the start of Tone B, in seconds. See the example trial timeline below for more information.
10) training_stage: Index indicating the stage of training (1-4, see below)
Timeline of an example trial during the final stage (4) of training:
1) A light in the center port indicates that a new trial can be initiated, at which point the rat can nose-poke in the center port
2) After the start of the nose-poke, there is a 0.25 sec delay before the start of Tone A
3) Tone A plays for 0.4 sec
4) There is a variable delay (recorded in the "delay" column in the CSV file)
5) Tone B plays for 0.4 sec
6) After the end of Tone B, there is a 0.25 sec delay before the Go cue is played
7) A Go cue plays for 0.2 sec
The rat is free to withdraw from the center port and make a choice at the start of the Go cue.
The total duration of the center nose-poke on each trial is thus 0.25 + 0.4 + "delay" + 0.4 + 0.25, or 1.3 + "delay" seconds.
Any break of center nose-poke during this time (steps 2-6) results in a Mistrial.
During training_stage 1 (ShapingStage), there is no tone played.
training_stage descriptions:
1) ShapingStage: chasing lights, no tones, building center nose-poke, s_a and s_b are NaN
2) ImmediateReward: s_a and s_b are played, and independent of the animals's choice reward is delivered according to the rule (s_a > s_b -> Right, s_b > s_a -> Left), and animal can immediately collect the reward from the other side, after a wrong choice.
3) DelayedReward: the standard task, except the wrong side will still deliver a reward after a 1-5 sec delay
4) NoReward: the standard task
Notes:
- Two types of trials were omitted from the dataset due to anomalies: (1) 14 trials were omitted for having anomalous stimulus values, and (2) 26 trials were omitted for having inconsistent correct_side values. These omissions are reflected in the data set as gaps in the "trial" count.
- There are 256691 trials that are Mistrials, where both "choice" and "hit" are NaN. These are trials where the rat did not complete the trial for various reasons (e.g. it broke center fixation early). Also, at some point after session 100 (differs for each rat), mistrials are no longer included in the data.
- For some rats, there are a few sessions late in training where training_stage reverts back to 1. This is for rats that suddenly started to do poorly and had their training reverted back to initial shaping stages, temporarily.
[1] Akrami, A., Kopec, C.D., Diamond, M.E. and Brody, C.D., 2018. Posterior parietal cortex represents sensory history and mediates its effects on behaviour. Nature, 554(7692), pp.368-372.
