Rats Can Drive Cars (to Lower Stress), Befriend Robot Rats And Help Them When In Trouble

haidut

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Official/pathological science keeps sternly warning us not to anthropomorphize and to think of animals as nothing but dumb, soul-less automatons. Yet, there has been no evidence discovered in over 100 years of pathological science reign to support such a view. To the contrary, the studies below add even more to the already existing pile of evidence that animals are indistinguishable from us when it comes to pretty much any aspect of life as we know it. Perhaps just as importantly, one of the studies shows yet again the importance of fun for good health. The rats that were trained to drive cars kept driving them not because they were forced by the scientists with some painful method, and not because there were offered rewards. The rats seemed to be driving the cars simply for the fun of it, which manifested into much higher DHEA and lower cortisol levels. A high DHEA/cortisol ratio is one of the most reliable predictors of all-cause mortality and morbidity, and the higher that ratio is the lower the chance that something bad will happen to a person health-wise. So, it appears the rats may be even smarter than us - i.e. they kept engaging in activities that were beneficial to them yet we humans keep running in the proverbial "rat race" or "rat wheel". Who's the rat now?!

Rats can make friends with robot rats and will rescue them when stuck

"...Would you help a trapped robot? Some rats would. The rodents can form social bonds with robots and will even help rescue a robotic rat that’s trapped in a cage. Animals, including rats, need to be highly attuned to social signals from others so they can identify friends to cooperate with and enemies to avoid."

Scientists have trained rats to drive tiny cars to collect food

"...Rats have mastered the art of driving a tiny car, suggesting that their brains are more flexible than we thought. The finding could be used to understand how learning new skills relieves stress and how neurological and psychiatric conditions affect mental capabilities."

"...Learning to drive seemed to relax the rats. The researchers assessed this by measuring levels of two hormones: corticosterone, a marker of stress, and dehydroepiandrosterone, which counteracts stress. The ratio of dehydroepiandrosterone to corticosterone in the rats’ faeces increased over the course of their driving training. This finding echoes Lambert’s previous work showing that rats become less stressed after they master difficult tasks like digging up buried food. They may get the same kind of satisfaction as we get when we perfect a new skill, she says. “In humans, we call this self-efficacy or agency.” In support of this idea, the team found that rats that drove themselves had higher dehydroepiandrosterone levels and were less stressed than rats that were driven around as passengers in remote-controlled cars."
 

TradClare

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As an owner of pet rats, this is not surprising! They absolutely love play time and adventure, and even without measuring hormone levels, it is easy to tell when they are relaxed or stressed. My seventh grader created a very complicated glass-top maze for them for a science project. At first, we "rescued" them after 5 minutes in the maze, because two of the three would get so stressed they would give up and shake in place. The rescues taught them quickly to keep trying for the full five minutes. Before long, they were all able to make it to the reward at the end, and now they can't wait to run through it 14 seconds. We have to hold them back (they strain to get in the gate) to set up the timer.
One of our rats loves to race me across the basement and then jump on my feet. Rats are like tiny dogs, but even more cuddly, and they absolutely recognize family members vs. strangers. I'm surprised they aren't more common as pets.
 
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haidut

haidut

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As an owner of pet rats, this is not surprising! They absolutely love play time and adventure, and even without measuring hormone levels, it is easy to tell when they are relaxed or stressed. My seventh grader created a very complicated glass-top maze for them for a science project. At first, we "rescued" them after 5 minutes in the maze, because two of the three would get so stressed they would give up and shake in place. The rescues taught them quickly to keep trying for the full five minutes. Before long, they were all able to make it to the reward at the end, and now they can't wait to run through it 14 seconds. We have to hold them back (they strain to get in the gate) to set up the timer.
One of our rats loves to race me across the basement and then jump on my feet. Rats are like tiny dogs, but even more cuddly, and they absolutely recognize family members vs. strangers. I'm surprised they aren't more common as pets.

Rats do love fun, at least as much as people do. Not sure if you have heard of the "Rat Park" experiment that disproved conclusively the popular theory of "addiction". It involved curing "addiction" with...fun.
Rat Park - Wikipedia
 

TradClare

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Thanks for sharing these! And "Rat Park" was interesting - I hadn't heard of that experiment.
 

lvysaur

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Nothing separates man from animal except for language complexity and finger manipulation.

And the biological pressures (or rather lack thereof) that arise directly from those crutches.
 
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Official/pathological science keeps sternly warning us not to anthropomorphize and to think of animals as nothing but dumb, soul-less automatons. Yet, there has been no evidence discovered in over 100 years of pathological science reign to support such a view. To the contrary, the studies below add even more to the already existing pile of evidence that animals are indistinguishable from us when it comes to pretty much any aspect of life as we know it. Perhaps just as importantly, one of the studies shows yet again the importance of fun for good health. The rats that were trained to drive cars kept driving them not because they were forced by the scientists with some painful method, and not because there were offered rewards. The rats seemed to be driving the cars simply for the fun of it, which manifested into much higher DHEA and lower cortisol levels. A high DHEA/cortisol ratio is one of the most reliable predictors of all-cause mortality and morbidity, and the higher that ratio is the lower the chance that something bad will happen to a person health-wise. So, it appears the rats may be even smarter than us - i.e. they kept engaging in activities that were beneficial to them yet we humans keep running in the proverbial "rat race" or "rat wheel". Who's the rat now?!

Rats can make friends with robot rats and will rescue them when stuck

"...Would you help a trapped robot? Some rats would. The rodents can form social bonds with robots and will even help rescue a robotic rat that’s trapped in a cage. Animals, including rats, need to be highly attuned to social signals from others so they can identify friends to cooperate with and enemies to avoid."

Scientists have trained rats to drive tiny cars to collect food

"...Rats have mastered the art of driving a tiny car, suggesting that their brains are more flexible than we thought. The finding could be used to understand how learning new skills relieves stress and how neurological and psychiatric conditions affect mental capabilities."

"...Learning to drive seemed to relax the rats. The researchers assessed this by measuring levels of two hormones: corticosterone, a marker of stress, and dehydroepiandrosterone, which counteracts stress. The ratio of dehydroepiandrosterone to corticosterone in the rats’ faeces increased over the course of their driving training. This finding echoes Lambert’s previous work showing that rats become less stressed after they master difficult tasks like digging up buried food. They may get the same kind of satisfaction as we get when we perfect a new skill, she says. “In humans, we call this self-efficacy or agency.” In support of this idea, the team found that rats that drove themselves had higher dehydroepiandrosterone levels and were less stressed than rats that were driven around as passengers in remote-controlled cars."
You post the most interesting stuff.
 

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