The ability to transport oneself to other places or moments with thought was, until now, an ability that was believed to be reserved for humans, but a group of researchers discovered that Rats have imaginations too.
To achieve this discovery, scientists at the Janelia Research Center of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, in Virginia (United States), developed a kind of “thought detector”, capable of measuring, in real time, the neuronal activity of rats and translating their That is, this medical institute revealed this Thursday.
The system combines 360-degree virtual reality and a brain-machine interface (BMI) to probe rats’ internal thoughts by measuring electrical activity in the hippocampus, the region of the brain where memories are stored and generated.
When the brain is remembering, there is specific activity in the hippocampus related to this activity, but so far it has not been detected in animals.
The system allowed the researchers to verify how, Like humans, when rodents experience places and events, specific patterns of neural activity are activated in their hippocampus.
Scientists thus discovered that A rat can activate hippocampal activity just by thinking about a place, without physically moving, that is, imagining it.
As the first phase of the experiment, the researchers created a kind of “dictionary of thought” which allowed them to decode the rat’s brain signals when it experienced something.
Then they performed two tests, which were called cinematography.
In one of them, called “Jumper”, in homage to the film and the book whose protagonist has the ability to teleport, the mouse was introduced into the system and, while walking on a spherical belt, its movements were reflected on the screen. 360 degrees. . When he achieved his goal, he was rewarded.
The system recorded the activity of the rat’s hippocampus and showed how its neurons activate as the rat navigates to reach the goal.
The end result is that the animal uses its thoughts to achieve the rewardthinking first about where to go to get it, an imaginative process that people regularly experience.
In the second experience, called “Jedi”, in homage to the Star Wars saga, the mouse fixates on a virtual location and moves an object to a location just by thinking, in the same way that someone sitting can imagine getting up have a cup of coffee without moving.
The researchers then changed the target location, requiring the animal to produce activity patterns associated with the new location.
The team found that mice can precisely and flexibly control hippocampal activity, just like humans.
Furthermore, animals can maintain this activity in the hippocampus for several seconds, a time similar to the time it takes for humans to relive past events or imagine new scenarios.
“Imagining is one of the most extraordinary things we humans can do.. “Now we have discovered that animals can do this too and we have found a way to study it,” said one of the researchers, Albert Lee.
The study also demonstrated that the brain-machine interface (BMI) system can be used to probe hippocampal activity, representing a major advance in the study of this important brain region.
Source: TSF
