Table 1.

CNTRICS constructs of interest and selected paradigms for animal model systems.

Construct	Selected paradigms
Perceptual processes
Gain control: The processes whereby neuronal responses adapt and animals adjust behavior to take into account an immediate perceptual context, done in order to optimize use of a limited dynamic signaling range.	Prepulse inhibition of the startle reflex: Attenuation of a startle response as a function of immediate pre-exposure to a sub-threshold stimulus. Mismatch negativity and related tasks (`odd ball' or frequency-variation paradigm): Neural and behavioral responses to a change in stimulus characteristics.
Integration: The processes linking the output of neurons that typically encode local attributes of a scene into a global complex structure, more suitable to the guidance of behavior.	Coherent motion detection: Animals (or neurons) respond when coherent motion of multiple parts (usually points or line segments) is detected. Contour detection: Animals (or neurons) respond when elements form a contour (the outcome measure for these tasks is threshold).
Attention
Control of attention: The ability to guide and/or change the focus of attention in response to internal representations (and prevent interference of this process by external noise).	Distractor sustained attention task: Animal is required to “report” (with two different responses) whether or not a signal occurred. Salience and probability of the signal, and salience of noise (non-relevant stimuli), are varied. 5-Choice serial reaction time and continuous performance tasks:Animal is required to detect brief stimuli presented at one of 5 possible locations. Detection is typically reported with a nose poke or touch on screen. Trials occur continuously in rapid succession. Non-signal trials reported by withholding responses can be added. Attentional load is varied with (1) size of the attentional field, (2) interference level, and (3) probability of stimuli at specific locations.
Executive function
Rule generation and selection: The processes involved in activating task-related goals or rules based on endogenous or exogenous cues, actively representing them in accessible form, and maintaining and using this information to bias attention and response selection during the interval needed to perform the task.	Set-shifting task (`intra-dimensional/extra-dimensional shift' task): Following acquisition of a compound stimuli on the basis of one dimension (while properties within the other dimensions are varied randomly), the rule is shifted such that a previously irrelevant dimension (i.e. `set') becomes relevant. Reversal learning (including probabilistic, 3-choice, and serial reversal): The contingencies of a discrimination rule are reversed: the stimulus previously associated with the reward is now associated with non-reward and vice versa.
Dynamic adjustments of control: The processes involved in detecting recent conflict or errors in ongoing processing and making rapid (within or inter-trial) adjustments in control of performance.	Stop-signal task (assessment of post-error slowing): The animal is required to use an external stimulus to cue the interruption of a prepotent, already-initiated motor response.
Working memory
Goal maintenance: The processes involved in maintaining information about task-related stimuli, goals and rules and using this information to bias attention and optimize response selection during task performance.	Delayed matching/non-matching tasks: This includes operant-box and maze versions by which animal is required to make a choice that matches or does not match a choice made on a previous trial. The time between trials and number of past choices required to remember are varied.
Working memory capacity: The size of the array of items or events that can be held online while the animal uses that array to make choices.	Stimulus (usually odor)-span task: An extension of the delay non-match-to-sample in which an additional stimulus is added with each trial and the animal is required to identify the stimulus not previously sampled.
Interference control: The ability to hold required information over time in the face of competing, irrelevant information or intervening events.	N-back tasks: Stimuli are presented serially and continuously. Animal tracks a target stimulus but must wait until when cued to respond. Upon cue stimulus, the animal responds if target had been presented since previous cue. Memory load is a function of number of stimuli intervening between target and cue.
Motivation and reinforcement learning
Reinforcement learning: Acquisition of an instrumental response in order to gain access to an appetitive (positive reinforcement) outcome or avoid an aversive outcome (negative reinforcement). Positive reinforcement was considered the process of greatest relevance to avolition in schizophrenia.	Probabilistic reinforcement learning: Acquisition and adjustment of an instrumental response according to probability of the reinforcer. Response-biased probabilistic reward learning: The effect of differential reinforcement probability of two difficult-to-discriminate stimuli on response bias. Pavlovian autoshaping: Pavlovian appetitive conditioning to a cue in the context of an instrumental response that does not depend on the cue.
Motivation: The valuation of an outcome (the conditioned stimulus or reinforcer) and expending work or guiding behavior on the basis of the value or probability of that outcome.	Effort-related tasks (e.g. Progressive Ratio): Progressively or randomly increasing the effort requirement (response ratio, height of barrier, duration of responding) for earning reward. Outcome devaluation and contingency degradation task: Assessing impact of reward devaluation (through saturation or negative association) on positively-reinforced responding.
Object/relational long-term memory
Relational encoding and retrieval: The processes involved in memory for stimuli/elements and their associations with coincident contexts, events or outcomes.	Paired associate learning: Animal is required to encode and retrieve object-location associations as a function the pairing of two objects (drawn from a larger set). Object in place scene learning: A variant of conditional discrimination requiring the animal to use a complex visual background (or context) to guide a choice between one of two possible cued responses (cues are presented in foreground).
Social/emotional processing
Socioaffective recognition: The ability to detect, recognize social cues emitted from a conspecific and respond appropriately.	Social recognition/preference: Variants include comparing responses to novel versus familiar social objects, or social objects versus neutral or non-living objects. Outcome measures include approach, exploration time, species-appropriate social behavior. Emotional and intention recognition using visual scan of social scenes: Animals (usually non-human primates) are shown video/audio presentation of social signals from conspecifics (e.g. facial expressions, body movements, vocalizations). The task can require the animal to discriminate between affective states or individual conspecifics. In addition to the operant response (a saccade), gaze pattern/speed, reaction time to emotional versus non-emotional stimuli, and autonomic responses are measured.