Scientists Taught Rats To Drive Tiny Cars
Kelly Lambert/University of RichmondThe study found that rats de-stress after perfecting a new skill like driving.
In more funny news stories from 2019 that includes animals, a group of scientists built tiny cars out of plastic food containers and taught rats how to drive them. The experiment was meant to explore how behavior affects our mental capabilities but also proved to be hilarious.
Previous research involving animal subjects had only been able to understand a small part of how the cognitive skills of animals work, so researchers from the University of Richmond in Virginia want to take things a step further. They wanted to figure out if animals, like rats, were able to be taught how to complete complex tasks like driving a vehicle.
To do this, the researchers needed to build special tiny cars for the rats which they did with transparent plastic containers. These small cars were equipped with an aluminum floor and its own tiny wheels. The “steering wheel” was made out of three copper bars.
When the rat stood on the car’s aluminum floor and held onto the bars, they would ignite an electrical charge that made the car move.
The rats were even taught to steer the car in different directions by touching different bars to propel the vehicle in various directions. The scientists used Froot Loop cereal pieces as a reward to motivate the rats to drive the car toward different spots of the driving arena. Luckily, the animals’ surprising driving skills were captured on video.
“They learned to navigate the car in unique ways and engaged in steering patterns they had never used to eventually arrive at the reward,” the study’s co-author Kelly Lambert said. The rats’ driving abilities showed their “neuroplasticity,” which refers to their ability to respond and adapt to changes.
The researchers tested out 17 rats — six females and 11 males.
Besides being hilarious to watch, studying the rats’ driving capabilities revealed how quickly they can pick up new behaviors. The researchers also found that some of the rats actually enjoyed driving and felt a sense of accomplishment similar to how humans feel when they’ve completed a task.
