Rats Dream, Ponder Where They Should Go
You’ve probably seen a rat in a maze before. They’re creatures which have proven adept at figuring out where they need to go to find the cheese at the end of the maze. But how does it affect them if they don’t necessarily find the cheese? A new study from University College London that was published in eLife suggests the possibility that rats dream about ways to get it, and that knowing about that reward leads to an increased amount of brain activity during sleep. Lead researcher Hugo Spiers compared it to humans looking at potential vacation destinations and having dreams about those pictures.
How Did The Researchers Realize This?
Literally looking into the dreams of a rat sounds like a particularly absurd sci-fi movie, so it makes sense that the researchers went about it in a more scientific manner. In the experiment, four different rats were put in a T-shaped pathway. At the bottom of this pathway, the rats were exposed to food, but found themselves unable to obtain the food. Having been exposed to this unobtainable food, the rats were brought to a nest and successfully made to fall asleep. The researchers then proceeded to attach 50 electrodes to monitor brain activity while the rats dream. After the rats woke up, they were immediately brought back to the T-shaped pathway. With the food no longer blocked off to not be obtained, the rats ran straight to the top of the pathway to acquire the food. This decision on the part of the rats combined with the researchers’ findings indicate that while the rats dream, they actually think about the food and plan their way to obtain it. It also showed borderline mind control on the part of the researchers, as they successfully stimulated part of the rats’ brains enough to alter their thoughts.
Still Work To Be Done
Co-author Caswell Berry urged people to not take this research as definitive proof of anything bigger, as there is always more research to be done on the subject. In particular, the hope is to continue studying the link between what was perceived to be planning on the animals’ part and what the animal does next after waking. Whether rats dream up plans to get the cheese is still not fully certain.
Mind control isn’t just what researchers use on rats. Now, you can use it on yourself to break out of bad habits, with the Pavlok shock bracelet.
Rats Dream of the Future
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