Tag

rats

A version of this article originally appeared on Undark

In the future, lab animals will live in computer chips, not cages

One lab's rodent surgeon thinks there are better ways to model human disease

Why did ancient cats begin hanging around humans?

New research suggests they had a taste for the rodents we attracted

Your brain rewards you when you explore new places

A new study used questionnaires and MRI scans to get to the heart of a similarity with rat brains

Your brain isn't the same in virtual reality as it is in the real world

VR is widely used to study the brain, but it isn't the same as real life — and this has real-world consequences

A rat with a device attached to its brain crawls through a three-dimensional (3D) maze.

 Grieves et al 2019. "The place-cell representation of volumetric space in rats." 

You live in a mostly 2D world, but the map in your brain charts the places you've been in 3D

Place cells in the brain light up in familiar places, both on the ground and climbing in the air

person in a lab coat holding a white lab rat

 Anna Marchenkova in Wikimedia Commons

Rats love hide and seek

Studying play in animals could allow scientists to answer important questions about decision making, social behavior, and even theory of mind.

With new technology, mind control is no longer science-fiction

We can only transmit basic signals between brains, but we should consider the ethics before moving on to complex thoughts

Vanessa / Flickr

That bossy GPS voice isn't actually necessary for navigating

New research suggests our brains update an internal 'cognitive map' when the environment changes

Five facts about Linda Buck, olfactory pioneer

The Nobel Prize-winning biologist revolutionized how we think about our noses