Washington (AFP)
Researchers have been able to teach rats to drive mini-cars in exchange for grain, and they say the results show that driving reduces animals' stress levels.
The mini-vehicles consisted of a cabin in which three wire bars corresponded in three directions: right, left, and straight. When the rat touched one of the bars, the vehicle was moving in the selected direction.
Seventeen rats were trained for months to drive in a sort of plexiglass arena of 150 centimeters by 60 centimeters.
The researchers had the satisfaction of seeing that rats could actually learn to drive.
In fact, they realized that rats that had grown up in what they call an "enriched environment" (a more natural, large and complex space) were doing much better than those who had grown up in cages.
"It was really crazy to see how much better they were," says Kelly Lambert, co-author and researcher at Richmond University.
In addition, rat excrements, retrieved and analyzed, showed that in all driving rats, the level of dehydroepiandrosterone hormone, which counteracts stress, was higher, which could be related to the satisfaction of having learned a lot. new skill.
Kelly Lambert and her colleagues want to believe that this paves the way for behavioral treatments in psychiatry for humans.
"There is no cure for schizophrenia or depression," she says. "We are late, we must take into account different animal models, different tasks, and admit that behavior can change our neuro-chemical state," says the researcher.
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