They train rats to drive minivehicles | Invest …

US scientists have formed a group of rats to handle mini-vehicles in exchange for cereals. The results show that driving reduces the stress level of these animals. The study not only shows just how sophisticated the rat brain is, but could also possibly help create non-pharmaceutical alternatives to treat mental illnesses, said senior author Kelly Lambert of the US. University of Richmond.

Lambert explained that she had long been interested in neuroplasticity – the brain's ability to change based on experiences and challenges – and in particular wanted to explore how rats reproduce in more natural environments. (enriched) before those maintained in the laboratory.

The director of the study and her colleagues have modified a robotic car and placed an aluminum platform at the bottom of a kind of driving cabin. A copper wire was laid horizontally across the cabin and forming three bars: left, center and right.

When a rat was located on the aluminum platform and touching the cable, the circuit was over and the car was moving in the chosen direction.

A total of 17 rats were trained for several months to drive on a Plexiglas surface. When describing their work in the journal Behavioral Brain Research, the researchers said that researchers could learn to drive animals, but also in a more complex way.

As he had suspected, Lambert found that animals kept in more stimulating environments gave better results than laboratory animals. But "it was shocking that they were really much better," he explained.

Feces from rats were collected after tests to locate stress hormones (corticosterone) and those that fight stress (dehydroepiandrosterone).

All trained rats had higher levels of dehydroepiandrosterone, indicating a more relaxed state, which could be related to the satisfaction of acquiring a new skill.

Even the rats that were driving had levels of this hormone even higher than those that were simply transient when a human was controlling the vehicle, meaning that they were less stressed.

Therefore, the greatest discovery for Lambert is the ability to open new avenues to treat people with mental disorders.

"There is no cure for schizophrenia or depression," he said. "But we need to look at different animal models and different types of tasks and really recognize that behavior can change our neurochemistry."