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We made our first mouse truck out of a plastic cereal box. After trial and error, my colleagues and I discovered that rats learn to drive forward by holding a small wire that acts like a gas pedal. Before long they were leading with surprising precision to reach the Froot Loop treat.
As expected, mice housed in enriched environments – complete with toys, space and companions – learned to drive faster than those in standard cages. This finding supports the idea Complex environments enhance neuroplasticityThe brain's ability to change throughout life in response to environmental demands.
After we published our study, the story of driving rats A virus entered in the media. The project continues with new, improved rodent-operated vehicles, or ROVs, designed by a robotics professor in my lab. John McManus And the students. These upgraded electric rovers – with rat-proof wires, non-slip tires and ergonomic steering wheel – are similar to Tesla's Cybertruck version of the mouse.
Read more: New insights into the cognitive dynamics of how rats learn
As a neuroscientist Who will defend it? Living in natural habitats and experimenting with lab animals, I found it interesting to see how far we got away from my lab experiments with this project. Rats prefer dirt, sticks and stones to plastic objects. Now, we've got them driving.
But humans didn't evolve to drive either. Although our ancestors did not have a car They had a flexible mind It allowed them to acquire new skills – fire, language, stone tools and agriculture. And some time after the invention of the wheel, people made cars.
Although the cars designed for mice are a far cry from what they experience in the wild, we believe that driving represents an interesting method for studying how mice acquire new skills. Unexpectedly, we found that the rats were highly motivated for their driving training, often jumping into the car and revving the “lever motor” before the vehicle hit the road. why was it
Introductory psychology learning concepts take on a new and practical dimension in our rat driving laboratory. Building on basic educational approaches such as Operating conditionerWe trained the rats step by step with their driver programs, which reinforce target behavior with strategic incentives.
At first, they learned basic movements like getting into the car and applying the lift. But with practice, these simple actions turn into complex behaviors, such as driving the car to a specific destination.
During the outbreak, the mice taught me something profound one morning.
It was the summer of 2020, an emotionally marked season for almost everyone on the planet, including lab rats. When I entered the lab, I noticed something unusual: the three rats trained to drive ran eagerly to the side of the cage, just like my dog jumps when asked if he wants to go for a walk.
Read more: Finding happiness in small things can be good for your well-being – a psychologist explains
Did the rats do this all the time and I didn't notice? Were you just excited for the Froot Loop or waiting for the drive? Whatever the case, they appeared to be feeling something positive—perhaps excitement and enthusiasm.
Behaviors associated with positive experiences are associated with happiness in humans, but what about mice? Was I seeing anything resembling happiness in the mouse? Perhaps so, considering that neuroscience research is on the rise Happiness and positive emotions They play an important role in the health of humans and non-human animals.
In doing so, my team and I shifted focus from topics like how chronic stress affects the brain to how positive events—and the anticipation of these events—shape neural activity.
Working with a post-doctoral fellow Kitty HartvigsenI designed a new protocol that uses wait times to maximize the probability before a positive event. Bringing Pavlovian conditioning Into the mix, the rats had to wait 15 minutes after the Lego block was placed in their home before receiving the Frot Loop. They also had to wait a few minutes in their transporter house before entering their playground, Rat Park. We also added challenges such as covering the sunflower seeds before eating them.
This became ours keep it up Research program. We've named this new line of research UPERs—unpredictable positive experience responses—in which rats are trained to expect rewards. In contrast, control rats received their reward immediately. After about a month of training, we exposed the mice to different challenges to determine how maintaining positive experiences affects learning and behavior. We are currently looking into their brains to map the neural imprints of prolonged positive experiences.
Preliminary results show that rats required to wait for their reward show signs of a shift from a negative cognitive style to an optimistic one in a test designed to measure rat optimism. They were better at cognitive tasks and bolder in their problem-solving style. We have linked this program to the broad needs of our laboratory CharacteristicIt's a term I coined to suggest that experiences can change brain chemistry in a similar way to pharmaceuticals.
This study provides further support for how anticipation reinforces behavior. Previous work with lab rats showed that when rats were pressed for a bar of cocaine—a stimulant that increases dopamine activation— Already experienced a dopamine surge. As you can imagine the amount of cocaine.
It was not just the effects of anticipation on the rats' behavior that caught our attention. One day, a student noticed something strange: one of the mice in the group had his tail straight with a twist at the end, like an old-fashioned umbrella handle, to keep positive experiences.
I have never seen this in my decades of working with mice. When we evaluated the video footage, we found that mice trained to anticipate positive experiences were more likely to hold their tails up than untrained mice. But what exactly does this mean?
Curious, I posted a picture of the feature on social media. Fellow neuroscientists recognize this as the so-called calm type. The tail of the stripeThis is especially true in rats given the opioid morphine. So is this S-shaped curve. Related to dopamine. When dopamine is blocked, striatal behavior is reduced.
Natural forms of opiates and dopamine—key players in brain pathways that reduce pain and enhance reward—seem to be important ingredients in our high-stakes training program. Observing tail position in mice adds a new layer to our understanding of mouse emotional expression, reminding us that emotions are expressed throughout the body.
Although we could not directly ask rats whether they like to drive, we developed a behavioral test to assess their motivation to drive. This time, instead of just giving the rats the option of driving to the fruit loop tree, in this case they can make a shorter trip by foot or palm.
Interestingly, two of the three mice avoided the reward and ran back to the car, choosing the less efficient route to drive to their Froth Loop destination. This response suggests that the mice enjoy the journey and its rewarding destination.
We're not the only ones exploring positive emotions in animals.
Neuroscientist Jack Panksepp Famous Itchy miceShowing what they have The potential for happiness.
Research shows that low-stress rodent environments are desirable. Rewire their brain's reward circuits.as the nucleus acumens. When animals are placed in their favorite environments, the area of the nucleus accumbens that responds to food experiences expands. Alternatively, when rats are placed in stressful situations, their nucleus accumbens fear-potentiating zones expand. The environment can adjust as if the mind were a piano.
Read more: How to discard 'fomo' and adopt 'jomo' – the joy of loss
Neuroscientist Kurt Richter also made the case Rats have hope. In a study that would not be allowed today, rats swam in glass cylinders filled with water and eventually drowned if not rescued. Lab rats that are frequently handled by humans swim for hours to days. The wild mice gave up after a few minutes. The wild mice survived for a short time, but their survival was dramatically extended, sometimes by days. The rescue seemed to give the rats hope and motivation.
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The Driving Rats project opened new and unexpected doors in my behavioral neuroscience research lab. While it's important to study negative emotions like fear and anxiety, positive experiences shape the brain in significant ways.
Like animals – human and otherwise – to navigate life's unpredictability, waiting for positive experiences helps us persevere in seeking life's rewards. In a world of instant gratification, these mice provide insights into the neural principles that guide everyday behavior. They remind us that planning, waiting and enjoying the journey, rather than pushing buttons for instant rewards, can be the key to a healthy mind. That's the lesson of my lab rats They taught me well.
