Last week, we had a story about scientists who put bats on a treadmill. This week, a neuroscientist teaches rats to drive. And they love it!

From @ConversationUS: “We crafted our first rodent car from a plastic cereal container. After trial and error, my colleagues and I found that rats could learn to drive forward by grasping a small wire that acted like a gas pedal.”

https://flip.it/kYvhJ6

And here’s the treadmill bats story ICYMI: https://www.sciencenews.org/article/vampire-bats-treadmills-metabolism

#Animals #Rats #Bats #Science #Psychology

  • Heliograph@mastodon.au
    1·
    2 days ago

    @ScienceDesk@flipboard.social @ConversationUS @Tooden@aus.social love this idea “#behaviorceuticals, a term I coined to suggest that experiences can alter brain chemistry similarly to pharmaceuticals”

  • Lisa Sky@mastodon.world
    1·
    3 days ago

    @ScienceDesk@flipboard.social @ConversationUS
    Did you guys hear about the elephant that figured out how to use a hose? And it’s friend bends it as a trick?! Animals are so great and clever!!

  • moggie@sfba.social
    1·
    3 days ago

    “Rat lessons on enjoying the journey
    Research has also shown that desirable low-stress rat environments retune their brains’ reward circuits, such as the nucleus accumbens. When animals are housed in their favored environments, the area of the nucleus accumbens that responds to appetitive experiences expands. Alternatively, when rats are housed in stressful contexts, the fear-generating zones of their nucleus accumbens expand. It is as if the brain is a piano the environment can tune.”

    @ScienceDesk@flipboard.social @ConversationUS