As we all know, rats are geniuses and them driving should not be a surprise at all.
No for real, scientists have found that they make decisions "based on what they know or don't know", Dr Becker of Healthy Pets Mercola. Becker has rats as the 5th smartest animal, behind chimps, bottlenose dolphins, elephants and African grey parrots.
At the University of Richmond, 11 male rats and 6 female rats were trained to drive electric cars, with an outer shell of plastic, in exchange for Froot Loops. Personally, I would only do it for some Cocoa Puffs, but whatever floats your boat.
The rats were encouraged to drive farther and farther as the scientists moved the Froot Loops farther and farther back.
“They learned to navigate the car in unique ways and engaged in steering patterns they had never used to eventually arrive at the reward,” says Kelly Lambert, scientist at the U of R.
The rats, the researchers found out, had lower stress levels when driving. During the experiment, the ratio between corticosterone, a marker of stress, and dehydroepiandrosterone, which counteracts stress, increased drastically.
In former experiments, rats were found to have less stress when they dug up food.They may get the same kind of satisfaction as we get when we perfect a new skill, Lambert says. “In humans, we call this self-efficacy or agency.”
“I do believe that rats are smarter than most people perceive them to be, and that most animals are smarter in unique ways than we think,” she says. This refers to their ability to respond flexibly to unfamiliar challenges.
Lambert also said that the rats being able to drive proves the “neuroplasticity” of their brains. The team is now planning follow-up experiments to understand how rats learn to drive, why it seems to reduce stress and which brain areas are involved.
Apparently, driving tests could replace the older maze experiments, to better study neuropsychiatric conditions, says Lambert.
For example, driving tests could be used to probe the effects of Parkinson’s disease on motor skills and spatial awareness, or the effects of depression on motivation, she says. “If we use more realistic and challenging models, it may provide more meaningful data,” she says.
Sooner or later we'll be seeing small little cars with furry little critters inside zooming in and out of traffic.
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