Animal models of source memory.

Crystal (2016) looked at lab tests that ask rats, 'Where did you learn that?' These tasks try to copy the human skill of remembering the source of a fact.

The paper is a story-style review. It maps which rat setups best split source memory from simple item memory.

Some rat jobs, like digging for food in scented cups, cleanly pull source memory apart from other memory. Other jobs mix the two together.

The review says these clean tasks can screen drugs for Alzheimer's work, because source memory is the first piece of episodic recall that fades.

Santrač et al. (2022) and Anshu et al. (2017) also use rats, but they test autism drugs and attention. All three papers treat the rat lab as a drug-testing factory, just for different targets.

Podlesnik et al. (2023) catalog 50 years of rat resurgence tests. Their paper and Crystal (2016) share the same toolbox—single-subject chambers, levers, and pellets—showing how rich rat data can guide human work.

Payne et al. (2020) review multisensory problems in autism. Like Crystal (2016), they push rodent models for drug screens, but for sensory issues, not memory. Together they widen the rat's job description beyond memory into broader developmental work.

If you run early-stage clinical trials, these rat source tasks give a cheap first pass. Pick a paradigm that isolates source memory, run your compound, and watch for reversal before you move to humans. Share the protocol with your team so everyone uses the same rodent benchmark.