Scientists have trained rats?to drive mini cars and collect food, proving that they are smarter than most people believe.
And the effects of learning this skill may actually help researchers find new ways to enhance motor skills in patients of Parkinson's disease.
University of Richmond
While it is established that rats are quite smart to boot (we've seen how smartly they end up entering our homes), scientists at the University of Richmond, Virginia, wanted to test whether they could handle the complex task of driving.
Kelly Lambert and her colleagues fabricated a tiny electric car with the help of a plastic food container, attached wheels and a steering bar made with copper. The base of the vehicle was made of aluminium. When the rat entered the vehicle and touched on the steering bar, the circuit would complete, allowing the vehicle to move.
Touching the left of the wheel would make the car go left, whereas touching the right made it go right. Touching the centre propelled the rats straight.
They conducted this test on six female and eleven male rats. These rats were trained in a rectangular test area which was around 4 square metres large. The rats were rewarded Froot Loop cereal pieces when they touched the steering bar, and moved the car forward.?
They enhanced the rat's driving skills by placing rewards in distant locations in the test area. Lambert says, "They learned to navigate the car in unique ways and engaged in steering patterns they had never used to eventually arrive at the reward."
What's surprising is that driving made the rats feel relaxed. The scientists discovered this as they were measuring their hormone levels, primarily cortisol (a stress marker) and dehydroepiandrosterone (a hormone that counteracts stress). They found that the faeces have more of dehydroepiandrosterone.
They also tested this against rats that were being driven in cars as passengers and they showed lower dehydroepiandrosterone levels than the ones driving or learning to drive.
Reuters
Lambert further added, "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,"
Researchers could eventually replace traditional maze tests for rats with complex driving tasks and study neuropsychiatric conditions. This could help them investigate Parkinson's disease's effect on motor skills. Lambert says "If we use more realistic and challenging models, it may provide more meaningful data."