Forget about cheese. This rat needs speed.
Scientists teaching rats to drive have discovered that not only can they drive small cars, they actually enjoy it and even get excited by revving the engine.
Kelly Lambert, a professor and neuroscientist at the University of Richmond, has been leading the research since 2019, during which time she and her team discovered that bearded creatures love to drive miniature vehicles. discovered.
“Unexpectedly, we found that rats were highly motivated to train to drive, often jumping into cars and revving the 'lever engine' before the car hit the road,” Lambert said. he said. I wrote I wrote this in an essay for The Conversation last week.
Lambert's research aims to investigate the relationship between animals and their environment, how animal cognition develops, and how animals process new skills. This rat race study went viral in 2022 and was even featured in a Netflix documentary.
This new discovery also showed that the rats were looking forward to getting behind the wheel.
“The three rats, who had been trained to drive, ran eagerly to the side of the cage and jumped up just like my dog when asked if he wanted to go for a walk,” Lambert wrote.
“Do rats do this all the time and I just didn't notice? Were they just eager for the flute loop, or were they expecting the drive itself? Either way. , they seemed to be feeling some positive emotion, perhaps excitement and anticipation.”
Her team concluded that the rats' excitement may be due to a combination of the positive experience of driving a small car and the Pavlovian response of knowing there will be a reward for driving. Ta.
Lambert trained the rats to associate driving a car with a reward – the coveted flute loop – and encouraged them to press the gas.
But she noticed that even without a reward, the rodent was still willing to drive away in the minicar.
“It's a reminder that planning, anticipating, and enjoying the ride, rather than pushing a button and reaping the immediate reward, is key to brain health,” she writes.
The idea for the study came from former UR psychology professor Beth Crawford. She proposed the idea to Lambert, who did not initially write it up, but returned to Lambert when he realized the potential and larger scientific implications of teaching rodents to drive. .
“This is an interesting and complex challenge about locomotion and travel. It's about moving through time and space, but it's not about moving your body,” Lambert said. university personUR student newspaper, 2020.
