{"id":203583,"date":"2025-01-11T20:27:25","date_gmt":"2025-01-12T02:27:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/01\/im-a-neuroscientist-who-taught-rats-to-drive-%e2%88%92-their-joy-suggests-how-anticipating-fun-can-enrich-human-life"},"modified":"2025-01-11T20:27:25","modified_gmt":"2025-01-12T02:27:25","slug":"im-a-neuroscientist-who-taught-rats-to-drive-%e2%88%92-their-joy-suggests-how-anticipating-fun-can-enrich-human-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/01\/im-a-neuroscientist-who-taught-rats-to-drive-%e2%88%92-their-joy-suggests-how-anticipating-fun-can-enrich-human-life","title":{"rendered":"I\u2019m a neuroscientist who taught rats to drive \u2212 their joy suggests how anticipating fun can enrich human life"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<p><iframe style=\"display: block; margin: 0 auto; width: 100%; aspect-ratio: 4\/3; object-fit: contain;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/1by4qHbTZ74?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope;\n   picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>We crafted our first rodent car from a plastic cereal container. After trial and error, my colleagues and I found that rats could learn to drive forward by grasping a small wire that acted like a gas pedal. Before long, they were steering with surprising precision to reach a Froot Loop treat.<\/p>\n<p>As expected, rats housed in enriched environments \u2013 complete with toys, space and companions \u2013 learned to drive faster than those in standard cages. This finding supported the idea that <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/j.bbr.2019.112309\">complex environments enhance neuroplasticity<\/a>: the brain\u2019s ability to change across the lifespan in response to environmental demands.<\/p>\n<p>After we published our research, the story of driving rats <a href=\"https:\/\/www.netflix.com\/title\/81318943\">went viral<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/documentaries\/the-nature-of-things\/why-rats-can-teach-us-a-lot-about-relieving-stress-1.6711679\">in the media<\/a>. The project continues in my lab with new, improved rat-operated vehicles, or ROVs, designed by robotics professor <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rmc.edu\/profile\/john-w-mcmanus\/\">John McManus<\/a> and his students. These upgraded electrical ROVs \u2013 featuring rat-proof wiring, indestructible tires and ergonomic driving levers \u2013 are akin to a rodent version of Tesla\u2019s Cybertruck.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We crafted our first rodent car from a plastic cereal container. After trial and error, my colleagues and I found that rats could learn to drive forward by grasping a small wire that acted like a gas pedal. Before long, they were steering with surprising precision to reach a Froot Loop treat. As expected, rats [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":661,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,6,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-203583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education","category-robotics-ai","category-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/661"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203583\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}