Woman: So what do you do?
Man: Oh, I’m a scientist.
Woman: Wow, do you do stem cell research or are you working on the cure for cancer?
Man: Haha, not quite. My research involves highly intricate experiments that could have significant implications for our understanding of the human mind.
Woman: Wow, so what’s your latest experiment?
Man: I taught rats to drive tiny cars.
Woman: …
Man: …
Woman: Was that for an experiment…or just for fun?
Man: Well, it started as a hobby… yes…
Woman: …
Man: You see, it’s to test their stress levels. So, I examined their droppings to s-
Woman: I don’t think this is going to work out.
Scientists Have Taught Rats To Drive Tiny Cars
As the headline states, scientists in Virginia have taught rats to drive small cars. According to SkyNews, this experiment was conducted to help scientists understand how learning skills affects the human mind and stress levels.
Their findings revealed that not only can rats be taught to drive, but that rats that were housed in an “enriched environment” designed to stimulate them with ladders and toys were able to learn better than a control group in normal housing.
But how did they teach small rodents to manoeuvre tiny vehicles?
Sweets
Just like humans, rats can’t help themselves when it comes to sweets.
Scientists constructed a tiny car from a plastic jug and added wheels at the sides. The little vehicle looks like this:
To drive, the rats had to grip one of three copper bars inside the jar that allowed them to steer the vehicle. The floor was also made of aluminium because the vehicle and the floor were part of an electrical circuit.
But, like many of us who struggle to get out of bed to go to the gym, the rats needed motivation.
So, researchers placed a sweet cereal product within the area used for the study.
They then pushed the rats to drive in more complicated ways by placing the treats in increasingly distant points from them and at difficult angles.
And, according to Professor Kelly Lambert, it worked:
“They learned to navigate the car in unique ways and engaged in steering patterns they had never used to eventually arrive at the reward.”
Why is this? I’ll let my furry friend here explain:
You know what to do if you just can’t pass your TP.
No lah, I’m not asking you to pepper the road with food. Just watch this video we’ve done instead:
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Lower stress levels
The researchers also made another surprising discovery; driving relaxed the rats.
They examined the rats’ droppings after they drove and concluded that they were more relaxed, based on the levels of stress hormones they were excreting.
So, unlike humans who turn into sociopathic maniacs on the road, rats become calmer after driving.
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But what is the point of all this? As previously mentioned, the study can help us understand how learning certain skills affect the human mind.
And if researchers can replace traditional maze tests with more complex driving tasks for future experiments, then these studies could also be used to study neuropsychiatric conditions, said Prof Lambert.
You might not like the fact that rats are being forced to drive, but hey, at least they weren’t dyed black and white to look like pandas.
You can watch the adorable video here:
