Fig. 1

Rodent Go/NoGo task protocols. a Illustration of the behavioral apparatus. Five nose ports and one reward delivery port are located in two narrow walls of the apparatus with inferred beam emitters and detectors installed inside. b Flowchart of the training processes. The regular Go/NoGo task consists of nine stages, where only NoGo trials are available in G1 and Go trials are introduced in G2. The proportion of NoGo and Go trials is adjusted through stages G1–9. The reversal Go/NoGo task consists of four stages. For regular Go/NoGo task, the learning phase of each stage is set to 15 days for maximum and the rats will be removed for further analysis when beyond the limit. After the rats reach the setting success criteria, varied consolidation phases are applied to individual G stage and R stage. c NoGo trial protocol. When the start port lit up, rats are allowed to poke in freely. The pre-tone time starts counting down once poking behavior was detected. After the white noise cue, rats are required to hold in place for certain period. Failure of holding will induce 8 s house light punishment instead of water reward. d Go trial protocol. Rats can poke into the start port freely after it lit up. One of the Go cues will be played upon the end of pre-tone delay. Rats are required to pull noses out within a limited time (LH), then poke into the corresponding side port within the setting time limit (ML). Successful performance will trigger a drop of reward water to be delivered