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Scientists have trained rats to drive tiny cars to collect food
Scientists have trained rats to drive tiny cars to collect food
22 October 2019
By Alice Klein
Rats seem to find driving relaxing
Kelly Lambert/University of Richmond
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.
We know that rodents can learn to recognise objects, press bars and find their way around mazes. These tests are often used to study how brain conditions affect cognitive function, but they only capture a narrow window of animal cognition, says Kelly Lambert at the University of Richmond in Virginia.
Lambert and her colleagues wondered if rats could learn the more sophisticated task of operating a moving vehicle.
They constructed a tiny car out of a clear plastic food container on wheels, with an aluminium floor and three copper bars functioning as a steering wheel. When a rat stood on the aluminium floor and gripped the copper bars with their paws, they completed an electrical circuit that propelled the car forward. Touching the left, centre or right bar steered the car in different directions.
[...]
22 October 2019
By Alice Klein
Rats seem to find driving relaxing
Kelly Lambert/University of Richmond
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.
We know that rodents can learn to recognise objects, press bars and find their way around mazes. These tests are often used to study how brain conditions affect cognitive function, but they only capture a narrow window of animal cognition, says Kelly Lambert at the University of Richmond in Virginia.
Lambert and her colleagues wondered if rats could learn the more sophisticated task of operating a moving vehicle.
They constructed a tiny car out of a clear plastic food container on wheels, with an aluminium floor and three copper bars functioning as a steering wheel. When a rat stood on the aluminium floor and gripped the copper bars with their paws, they completed an electrical circuit that propelled the car forward. Touching the left, centre or right bar steered the car in different directions.
[...]
20 replies
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= new reply since forum marked as read
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when self driving cars are the norm?????? 
I knew it was all too good to be true......
