WEBVTT - Respect the Rat 0:00:03.120 --> 0:00:06.000 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:06.000 --> 0:00:13.920 Works dot com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. 0:00:13.960 --> 0:00:17.000 My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Julie Douglas. Julie, 0:00:17.480 --> 0:00:20.200 when was the last time you saw a live rat? Ha? Ha? 0:00:20.920 --> 0:00:25.160 I saw a huge rat at the zoo once, Yeah, 0:00:25.239 --> 0:00:28.160 in in an exhibit. No, just running across the path. 0:00:28.280 --> 0:00:31.480 And that's not surprising, right, because the zoo has lots 0:00:31.480 --> 0:00:34.960 and lots of food at any animals dispose. Also, I'm 0:00:35.000 --> 0:00:37.320 sure that rats hang out there quite a bit. Okay, 0:00:37.360 --> 0:00:40.320 a little similarly, I last time I saw a live 0:00:40.560 --> 0:00:43.519 rat outside of the confines of a pet store was 0:00:43.600 --> 0:00:47.160 when I was taking the public transportation around here, Martha. 0:00:47.320 --> 0:00:49.960 The drain that is at times kind of a subway, 0:00:50.320 --> 0:00:53.360 and indeed I get to see a nice fat subway 0:00:53.440 --> 0:00:55.840 rat running around under the tracks, which for me is 0:00:55.840 --> 0:00:57.840 always kind of a treat because it, you know, it 0:00:57.880 --> 0:01:03.240 brings to mind more you know, opic ideals of the underworld. Um. 0:01:03.280 --> 0:01:05.160 And at the same time it's also I can't help 0:01:05.200 --> 0:01:07.720 but I think it's a little gross because obviously the 0:01:08.040 --> 0:01:10.679 rat is there because there's plenty of garbage. Dat well, 0:01:10.720 --> 0:01:14.120 there's something very outlaw and charming about these rats to 0:01:14.400 --> 0:01:16.920 dwelling in a subterranean world, right, and we tend to 0:01:16.959 --> 0:01:20.800 think of them more in really negative terms, thinking about 0:01:20.880 --> 0:01:24.400 them as vectors of disease. But as we're going to 0:01:24.560 --> 0:01:29.600 explore today, rats are one of the most successful species, 0:01:30.240 --> 0:01:33.400 and rats they're just like us that we have a 0:01:33.400 --> 0:01:36.720 lot in common with them. Indeed, now we don't want 0:01:36.760 --> 0:01:40.280 to completely discredit the whole disease vector thing because according 0:01:40.280 --> 0:01:42.759 to the CDC there that they're These are just some 0:01:42.840 --> 0:01:47.800 of the key diseases transmitted by rodents. There's a hantavirus, 0:01:47.880 --> 0:01:53.200 pulmonary syndrome, hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome, a loss of fever, 0:01:53.680 --> 0:02:01.240 a leptospirosis, lymphocitic chronomeningitis, o hemorrhage, fee ever, plague, rat 0:02:01.320 --> 0:02:05.920 bite fever, someone elis, someon elysis, and several South American 0:02:05.960 --> 0:02:09.080 arena viruses. Well, you know this is how I feel 0:02:09.080 --> 0:02:11.160 about being a rat. You probably want to have a 0:02:11.200 --> 0:02:15.000 heavy reputation like that, right because you're out there on 0:02:15.080 --> 0:02:19.040 the streets, the mean streets. You want to mean persona like, hey, 0:02:19.080 --> 0:02:22.320 I might accidentally give you some sort of plague or 0:02:22.639 --> 0:02:25.640 or not so accidentally so don't mess with me. And 0:02:25.680 --> 0:02:28.240 when you start to think about rats in this way, 0:02:28.560 --> 0:02:32.519 their survival instincts, you can really look at them as 0:02:32.560 --> 0:02:36.480 more of it's just this sort of pestilence underground, but 0:02:36.639 --> 0:02:41.320 more as the uh the largest collective holders of real 0:02:41.480 --> 0:02:47.200 estate in major metropolitan areas, specifically Manhattan, because we should 0:02:47.240 --> 0:02:51.040 really consider this rich life of the rat there, which 0:02:51.240 --> 0:02:55.440 arrives sometimes in the eighteen hundreds. We're talking about Rattus norvegicus, 0:02:56.120 --> 0:02:59.720 and it has made itself so ubiquitous that just it's 0:02:59.800 --> 0:03:03.959 very presence is sort of one of those defining features 0:03:04.040 --> 0:03:06.359 of New York City when you think about New York, right, 0:03:07.400 --> 0:03:12.079 and they have successfully lived off the detritus of humans. 0:03:12.240 --> 0:03:15.679 And you can follow droppings nearly anywhere if you want 0:03:15.680 --> 0:03:19.680 to write, and you'll find a path between walls, nod 0:03:19.760 --> 0:03:23.920 between bricks, and then just knowing that there's this whole 0:03:23.919 --> 0:03:30.320 other species, is life thriving beneath our feet or between 0:03:30.320 --> 0:03:33.360 our walls, and sometimes even coming up through our toilet bowl. 0:03:35.200 --> 0:03:36.960 I think about that in the middle of the night sometimes, 0:03:37.360 --> 0:03:39.200 and I have to admit, when I am in New York, 0:03:39.200 --> 0:03:41.200 if I don't see a rat, I feel a little 0:03:41.280 --> 0:03:44.040 let down like it's it's it should's part of the experience, 0:03:44.160 --> 0:03:46.720 you know. So if there's not one appearing naturally, I 0:03:46.800 --> 0:03:49.240 kind of want to hire somebody to just let a 0:03:49.360 --> 0:03:53.400 rat trained one run across the street in front of me. UM. Now, 0:03:54.360 --> 0:03:57.280 when you get into the exact numbers of rats in Manhattan, 0:03:57.400 --> 0:04:01.160 I bring this up because it was recently in the news. UM. 0:04:01.360 --> 0:04:04.920 Past estimates of range from an extreme infestation of twenty 0:04:04.960 --> 0:04:09.560 eight million rats to uh the other more conservative estimates 0:04:09.560 --> 0:04:14.360 of eight point four million UM. But recently there's a 0:04:14.400 --> 0:04:17.679 study that came out from Jonathan Arbach, a PhD candidate 0:04:17.680 --> 0:04:21.320 at Columbia University, and he's crunched the numbers and he 0:04:21.480 --> 0:04:24.640 thinks that it's less than that, probably more like two million. 0:04:24.920 --> 0:04:27.760 But basically, any way you shake it, we're talking about 0:04:27.760 --> 0:04:31.120 a lot of rats living in this great metropolis. Yeah, 0:04:31.120 --> 0:04:34.800 that's a decent sized population. And it's really easy to 0:04:35.360 --> 0:04:37.520 start actually going the rout a two year oute to 0:04:38.520 --> 0:04:42.160 and projecting, um, your human qualities are our human qualities 0:04:42.160 --> 0:04:45.320 onto them. UM. But as we will explore later on, 0:04:45.360 --> 0:04:50.280 there really are a lot of parallels between routes and humans. UM. 0:04:50.320 --> 0:04:52.840 But one of the things that's often overlooked is that 0:04:52.880 --> 0:04:58.200 there's quite a bit of contribution from rats, albeit not voluntarily. 0:04:59.160 --> 0:05:01.719 That's right. We're getting on the ratitui area and getting 0:05:01.720 --> 0:05:05.960 into more of the secretive nim area here, right. Um. 0:05:06.120 --> 0:05:09.880 As it turns out, of all lab animals are mice 0:05:10.080 --> 0:05:14.240 and rats according to the Foundation for Biomedical Research, and 0:05:14.279 --> 0:05:16.400 that is that is quite a lot. Because you think 0:05:16.400 --> 0:05:19.520 of lab animals, right um. You know, you also tend 0:05:19.560 --> 0:05:22.599 to throw in chimps and you think of experiments on 0:05:22.720 --> 0:05:25.880 rabbits or what have you, but or even some things 0:05:25.920 --> 0:05:28.960 like ecoli and some of the jazzery experiments that we've 0:05:28.960 --> 0:05:30.760 discussed here in the past. But when you come back 0:05:30.760 --> 0:05:34.000 down to it, it's the rodents that are carrying most 0:05:34.000 --> 0:05:36.960 of the load. And why is this, Well, a lot 0:05:36.960 --> 0:05:39.800 of it has to do with convenience, right. Rats are 0:05:39.839 --> 0:05:44.200 small in size, they're easily housed, you can easily maintain 0:05:44.279 --> 0:05:48.680 them in captivity, and they're fairly adaptive to new surroundings. 0:05:48.800 --> 0:05:51.000 I mean, obviously there are plenty of species out there 0:05:51.400 --> 0:05:53.800 that that you cannot keep in captivity. They just do 0:05:53.839 --> 0:05:55.800 not survive. They just completely fail if you try to 0:05:56.080 --> 0:06:00.760 house them. The rat, however, one of its skills as adaptations. Hey, 0:06:00.800 --> 0:06:04.880 it adapts well to this captive lifestyle. Also, rats reproduce 0:06:04.960 --> 0:06:07.599 like crazy, and they don't live more than two or 0:06:07.640 --> 0:06:09.159 three years. So if you have a study and you 0:06:09.200 --> 0:06:12.600 need to look at several generations all the creature to see, uh, 0:06:12.760 --> 0:06:15.120 see how your studies panning out, you can do that 0:06:15.160 --> 0:06:17.960 in a short period of human time. You know. Now, 0:06:18.000 --> 0:06:22.120 they're they're no ecoli. Heck, the E. Coli long term 0:06:22.320 --> 0:06:25.480 evolution experiment that we've discussed here before has seen more 0:06:25.520 --> 0:06:28.839 than fifty thou generations passed in just twenty five years. 0:06:28.880 --> 0:06:32.840 But rats and mice boast other key advantages. They're also 0:06:33.000 --> 0:06:36.120 cheap to acquire. You can buy lab mice and rats 0:06:36.120 --> 0:06:39.400 in bulk from commercial suppliers, so there's no hanging around 0:06:39.440 --> 0:06:42.239 around looking like a creepy person at the local pet store, 0:06:42.560 --> 0:06:44.919 you know, with your burlap sack. And then when it 0:06:44.920 --> 0:06:47.719 comes to actually handling them, uh, this is a pretty 0:06:48.000 --> 0:06:51.360 uh mild tempered creature. You can reach into the cage, 0:06:51.360 --> 0:06:53.680 you can get them out, you can you can handle them. 0:06:53.680 --> 0:06:56.120 You don't need a you know, an electric prod to 0:06:56.240 --> 0:07:00.440 deal with the lab rat. Right, They're highly portable and 0:07:00.920 --> 0:07:06.120 their genetic biological and behavior characteristics closely resemble those of humans, 0:07:06.120 --> 0:07:08.800 making them really ideal to study. So, as you mentioned, 0:07:09.200 --> 0:07:13.840 because they reproduce so quickly, you can tinker around with genetics, 0:07:13.920 --> 0:07:16.600 and within just a couple of generations you can you 0:07:16.640 --> 0:07:19.720 can begin to take some sort of hypothesis and then 0:07:19.760 --> 0:07:22.360 put it into study by tinkering with the genetics and 0:07:22.400 --> 0:07:27.080 seeing what the outcome is, which of course informs what 0:07:27.120 --> 0:07:30.360 we're trying to do medically with humans. And when I 0:07:30.440 --> 0:07:33.600 say informing, I mean really the contributions to a ton 0:07:34.200 --> 0:07:38.600 of diseases and conditions that we have been studying through wraps. 0:07:39.880 --> 0:07:42.560 And what exactly have they helped with? Well, according to 0:07:43.040 --> 0:07:46.480 Life Sciences article wy do medical researchers use mice, they've 0:07:46.520 --> 0:07:55.200 assisted with the following uh standing in as human models, hypertension, diabetes, cataracts, obesity, seizures, 0:07:55.520 --> 0:08:01.720 respiratory problems, deafness, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, cancer, cystic fibrosis, 0:08:01.920 --> 0:08:06.600 HIV and AIDS, heart disease, muscular drift dystrophy, and spinal 0:08:06.640 --> 0:08:10.040 cord injuries. And in addition to all that, we regularly 0:08:10.040 --> 0:08:16.360 turned to mice for varying studies that concern behavioral sensory, aging, nutrition, 0:08:16.400 --> 0:08:20.120 and genetic studies, as well as the treatment of drug addictions. Yeah, 0:08:20.160 --> 0:08:23.000 so that's quite a resume that that rats and mice have. 0:08:23.760 --> 0:08:27.240 Now consider that rats were first used in the lab 0:08:27.280 --> 0:08:30.320 at the turn of the century by researchers believe in 0:08:30.400 --> 0:08:33.520 Chicago and at Clark University. So at first it was 0:08:33.600 --> 0:08:37.280 just the humble rodent maze that they would run through 0:08:37.400 --> 0:08:39.920 to try to give us some ideas about the more 0:08:40.000 --> 0:08:46.800 behavioral aspects of rats. Now fast forward to today and 0:08:46.840 --> 0:08:52.000 they're actually occupying a far loftier space and studies. And 0:08:52.120 --> 0:08:55.600 one of the loftiest uh that I could think of 0:08:56.160 --> 0:09:00.880 is something called the Human Brain Project. And and this 0:09:01.040 --> 0:09:04.960 is something that neuroscientist Henry Markham has been toiling away 0:09:05.000 --> 0:09:07.560 at for years and we've talked about it before, to 0:09:07.720 --> 0:09:10.520 this idea that you could reverse engineer of the human brain. 0:09:11.160 --> 0:09:15.040 And this is a very ambitious project to complete a 0:09:15.280 --> 0:09:18.480 or to build a complete model of a human brain. 0:09:18.520 --> 0:09:23.520 And we're talking from snapsis to hemispheres and then simulate 0:09:23.559 --> 0:09:29.040 it on a supercomputer. That is incredibly complex and ambitious. 0:09:29.320 --> 0:09:31.640 So what do you do, Well, you have to start 0:09:31.679 --> 0:09:34.920 with the basics and the basics in this case is 0:09:35.080 --> 0:09:39.880 the neo cortex of a rat, and Markham has simulated 0:09:39.880 --> 0:09:42.760 the behavior of a millionaire on portion of this rat 0:09:42.840 --> 0:09:45.440 neo cortex and this has given Markham a lot of 0:09:45.520 --> 0:09:49.880 new insight into everything from the expression of individual rat 0:09:49.960 --> 0:09:53.640 genes to the organizing principles of rat brains. And the 0:09:53.720 --> 0:09:57.640 team Market Seeing has published some of that data impair 0:09:57.720 --> 0:10:02.080 reviewed journals. But they're also beginning to integrate it into 0:10:02.120 --> 0:10:06.640 this cohesive model so that they can simulate it onto 0:10:06.679 --> 0:10:11.480 an IBM blue gene supercomputer, which will all then um 0:10:11.640 --> 0:10:15.079 lead to this human brain project. Now, if this human 0:10:15.080 --> 0:10:18.840 brain project is successful, we're talking about building a plug 0:10:18.880 --> 0:10:21.640 and play brain. Um, you could take it apart to 0:10:21.640 --> 0:10:24.160 figure out what the causes of brain disease are. You 0:10:24.200 --> 0:10:26.679 could rig it to robotics and develop a whole new 0:10:26.760 --> 0:10:30.560 range of intelligent technologies. You could strap on a pair 0:10:30.600 --> 0:10:34.959 of virtual reality classes and experience a brain other than 0:10:35.040 --> 0:10:38.959 your own. Now, the big question here, a lot of 0:10:39.040 --> 0:10:42.360 naysayers say, can you can this model scale, can you 0:10:42.400 --> 0:10:45.240 go from a rat brain to a human brain? And 0:10:45.320 --> 0:10:49.160 can this be done to that sort of complex um 0:10:49.480 --> 0:10:52.679 level of detail. We don't know yet, But if it's successful. 0:10:53.240 --> 0:10:56.280 The reason it is is because it began with rats. 0:10:56.840 --> 0:10:58.240 All right, Well, on that note, we're going to take 0:10:58.240 --> 0:11:00.680 a break, and when we come back, canna get into 0:11:01.600 --> 0:11:13.520 how rats are essentially just like us. All Right, we're back. Um. 0:11:13.559 --> 0:11:16.160 You know, we've been discussing the way we use rats 0:11:16.760 --> 0:11:19.199 in experiments in the past, how they're going to factor 0:11:19.240 --> 0:11:22.319 into our further explorations of the human mind and the 0:11:22.360 --> 0:11:25.520 human body in the future. And in doing this, it's 0:11:25.559 --> 0:11:28.440 it's already pretty obvious that you can't just look at 0:11:28.440 --> 0:11:31.920 this rat as a as a mere furry earthworm that 0:11:31.960 --> 0:11:34.360 we can just you just inject things into and see 0:11:34.360 --> 0:11:37.480 how it plays out in sort of a generic organism. 0:11:37.520 --> 0:11:38.960 There's a lot of there seems to be a lot 0:11:38.960 --> 0:11:41.199 more of a linkage between what it is to be 0:11:41.240 --> 0:11:43.160 a rat and what it is to be a human. 0:11:44.360 --> 0:11:48.640 That's right, And so that introduces us to these human 0:11:48.960 --> 0:11:52.040 like things that we like to define ourselves by. I'm 0:11:52.080 --> 0:11:57.160 talking about this idea that we could exhibit regret, or empathy, 0:11:57.320 --> 0:12:00.120 or even meta cognition, this idea that we could think 0:12:00.160 --> 0:12:04.240 about thinking that seems like something that only primates can do, right, 0:12:05.120 --> 0:12:07.800 But in fact, there are studies that will point you 0:12:07.840 --> 0:12:10.960 into the direction of rats being able to exhibit this 0:12:11.000 --> 0:12:16.040 as well. Indeed, for instance, rats being able to feel regret. 0:12:16.480 --> 0:12:18.480 This one is really fascinating. This one is from a 0:12:18.480 --> 0:12:21.120 study that came out in two thousand fourteen published in 0:12:21.160 --> 0:12:24.679 the journal Nature Neuroscience from It's a University of Minnesota 0:12:24.760 --> 0:12:28.720 study from Adam P. Steiner and A. David reddish Um. 0:12:28.800 --> 0:12:31.320 The key findings here are that rats who made a 0:12:31.400 --> 0:12:34.080 bad choice registered regret in the same part of the 0:12:34.120 --> 0:12:39.160 brain that humans are believed to show regret, the orbitofrontal cortex. 0:12:39.640 --> 0:12:42.400 And they also seem to look back on past regrets 0:12:42.400 --> 0:12:46.280 in the same way that humans do um. In other words, 0:12:46.320 --> 0:12:48.840 the rat is thinking about what it should have done now. 0:12:49.240 --> 0:12:53.200 The study itself has a lot to to to line 0:12:53.280 --> 0:12:56.240 up with human dyning UH do. Like, have you ever 0:12:56.240 --> 0:12:58.160 found yourself in a situation where there's a restaurant you 0:12:58.240 --> 0:13:01.280 really want to dine at, You go air it's too crowded. 0:13:02.480 --> 0:13:04.360 I have and then what what do you do? I 0:13:04.440 --> 0:13:07.800 go to another one sort of grudgingly, yes, exactly, And 0:13:07.840 --> 0:13:09.880 so this is kind of what they were setting out 0:13:09.880 --> 0:13:12.280 to do with the with the rats too. In the 0:13:12.360 --> 0:13:15.760 rats UH study, this model of of having to fall 0:13:15.760 --> 0:13:18.720 back on a plan, be adjusting your your your plans, 0:13:18.760 --> 0:13:22.200 and then how you think about past and future choices. 0:13:22.640 --> 0:13:24.439 The rats in this study were given the chance to 0:13:24.480 --> 0:13:27.920 feed on four flavors and four different feeding stations. Banana 0:13:28.160 --> 0:13:31.720 always a jazzy choice, cherry also good chocolate everyone loves it, 0:13:32.040 --> 0:13:36.600 and unflavored, which leaves a lot to be desired. Now, 0:13:36.840 --> 0:13:39.240 each rat is going to have its own in this experiment, 0:13:39.240 --> 0:13:42.160 had its own preferences on and its own patients level 0:13:42.240 --> 0:13:44.520 regarding how long they're gonna wait for something they want 0:13:44.520 --> 0:13:46.000 to eat, you know, just like any of us as 0:13:46.040 --> 0:13:48.800 we go out to get that meal on say a 0:13:48.840 --> 0:13:51.959 Friday date night or what have you. Um So, when 0:13:51.960 --> 0:13:54.840 the rats arrived at a station, a tone would let 0:13:54.840 --> 0:13:56.680 them know how long they would have to wait for 0:13:56.720 --> 0:13:59.199 their grub. And that could be one second way, or 0:13:59.240 --> 0:14:01.680 it could be a forty five second way. And again, 0:14:01.679 --> 0:14:04.199 if you're only living up to three years, that forty 0:14:04.240 --> 0:14:07.080 five second way is maybe a little more substantial. The 0:14:07.160 --> 0:14:10.560 researchers found that the rats decided to stay or go 0:14:10.760 --> 0:14:13.440 based on that tone based on the perspective weight, the 0:14:13.480 --> 0:14:16.040 same way humans would with a crowded restaurant. You know, 0:14:16.080 --> 0:14:18.240 two hour Wait, screw that, I'm going to Denny's and 0:14:18.280 --> 0:14:20.360 there I'm gonna eat it fast and angry, and then 0:14:20.400 --> 0:14:22.600 I'm moving on. And it was the same with the rats, 0:14:23.080 --> 0:14:25.560 but much much like a human that goes to to 0:14:25.680 --> 0:14:28.800 Denny's over the latest fusion dining sensation, the rats who 0:14:28.840 --> 0:14:32.640 skipped out on quality um favorite show for something faster 0:14:32.800 --> 0:14:36.000 and then showed regret. Uh. And then researchers observed the 0:14:36.040 --> 0:14:40.040 brain activity of via a little invasive tinkering and indicated 0:14:40.120 --> 0:14:42.680 that the rats were engaged in what they called mental 0:14:42.800 --> 0:14:47.320 time travel. So they're imagining the alternate reality of eating 0:14:47.320 --> 0:14:50.200 in the restaurant that it skipped and the that ability, 0:14:50.240 --> 0:14:52.480 of course, is core to so much of the human experience, 0:14:52.560 --> 0:14:55.200 right the regretting the past, worrying over the future, the 0:14:55.320 --> 0:14:59.680 entire wheel of human suffering, because uh uh. As the 0:15:00.040 --> 0:15:03.400 rats quickly angerate their lackluster plan B meals, they were 0:15:03.440 --> 0:15:07.560 already plotting the next better meal, which I mean, this 0:15:07.640 --> 0:15:10.160 is a very human thing, right, Like how many times 0:15:10.160 --> 0:15:13.600 have you anger eaten at a place which you're like, 0:15:13.840 --> 0:15:16.240 I really didn't want to do this, yeah, or even 0:15:16.280 --> 0:15:17.920 if it's still good, you're kind of like all right, 0:15:17.920 --> 0:15:20.160 well this is good, but I really wanted to try 0:15:20.200 --> 0:15:22.560 that ramen, you know, yeah, I mean, and the regret 0:15:22.680 --> 0:15:25.160 is it feels like one of those really human things. 0:15:25.160 --> 0:15:28.520 So it's interesting to see it played out in this context. Now, 0:15:29.200 --> 0:15:32.440 another thing that UM has been a bit of a 0:15:32.440 --> 0:15:35.760 surprise here in the last five years is this idea 0:15:35.920 --> 0:15:39.080 that rats can exhibit empathy. And so the next study 0:15:39.280 --> 0:15:43.160 that we're going to talk about UM covers empathy, but 0:15:43.240 --> 0:15:46.320 it also covers chocolate. As you mentioned before, Like this 0:15:46.640 --> 0:15:49.920 turns out to be one of rats favorite snacks, and 0:15:49.960 --> 0:15:52.640 like this is a very important thing in the world 0:15:52.720 --> 0:15:54.760 of rats if you have access to chocolate. And this 0:15:54.800 --> 0:15:59.920 will come into play in a moment. So two thousand eleven, Neurosciences, 0:16:00.120 --> 0:16:03.880 Peggy Mason, she devised an experiment where two rat mates 0:16:03.880 --> 0:16:07.160 were housed together for a few weeks, and then she 0:16:07.400 --> 0:16:11.520 placed one into a transparent tube that could only be 0:16:11.640 --> 0:16:14.720 opened from the outside. Now, the other rat, the free rat, 0:16:14.880 --> 0:16:18.920 was pretty curious. It was kind of sniffing around, and 0:16:19.080 --> 0:16:21.680 perhaps it was even a little bit frightened because it 0:16:21.720 --> 0:16:25.480 didn't immediately open the door. There's this idea that it 0:16:25.560 --> 0:16:29.880 could be experiencing something called emotional contagion. This this sort 0:16:29.920 --> 0:16:35.720 of fear that um in a group situation where you 0:16:35.760 --> 0:16:38.520 feel that other person's fear and is very uncomfortable. Right, 0:16:39.200 --> 0:16:41.440 So it's possible that that rat was kind of shying 0:16:41.440 --> 0:16:45.320 away at first, but once it kind of got this idea, oh, 0:16:45.360 --> 0:16:47.320 my friend just trapped in here, or my cage mates 0:16:47.360 --> 0:16:51.280 trapped in here, over and over again they would see 0:16:51.280 --> 0:16:54.640 that this rat would release the other rat that was 0:16:54.680 --> 0:16:58.400 trapped in the container. Now, the researchers had variations on 0:16:58.440 --> 0:17:01.320 this experiment. In one case, they put a fake rat 0:17:01.720 --> 0:17:04.760 in the container, which kind of like, come on, guys, 0:17:04.800 --> 0:17:07.000 you know rats are pretty smart. They're going to realize 0:17:07.000 --> 0:17:08.800 that that's a fake rat. And of course they did 0:17:08.800 --> 0:17:12.679 not try to release the fake rat. And then they 0:17:12.720 --> 0:17:16.000 had another version in which they presented a rat holding 0:17:16.040 --> 0:17:20.320 container um with a ratit and another one another rat 0:17:20.320 --> 0:17:24.000 holding container which contained chocolate. So this is where the 0:17:24.040 --> 0:17:27.359 willpower comes in, because again, here's this thing in front 0:17:27.400 --> 0:17:30.320 of you. This chocolate is the your most prized possession 0:17:30.640 --> 0:17:33.280 of your tiny rat life if you can access this. 0:17:33.560 --> 0:17:36.600 And what they found is that the rodents, the free ones, 0:17:36.760 --> 0:17:41.160 would actually go and free the cage mate and then 0:17:41.240 --> 0:17:42.919 they would go and get the chocolate, and not only 0:17:42.960 --> 0:17:47.080 would they get the chocolate second as this altruistic act, 0:17:47.119 --> 0:17:50.280 but they would share it with the cage mate. There's 0:17:50.359 --> 0:17:52.040 there's many a human that would not do that. I 0:17:52.080 --> 0:17:57.119 feel exactly right, and so this is very pro social behavior. 0:17:57.880 --> 0:18:01.119 And there was a follow ups study in two thousand 0:18:01.200 --> 0:18:04.720 and fourteen and the idea was, well, what happens if 0:18:04.720 --> 0:18:10.400 you put uh like rats in with other rats, so 0:18:10.600 --> 0:18:15.000 like meaning all albino, And then you do a sort 0:18:15.000 --> 0:18:17.040 of variation on that and you take say a black 0:18:17.040 --> 0:18:20.360 hooded rat with albino rat. Would they free each other 0:18:20.480 --> 0:18:23.800 even though they're of different strains. What they found is 0:18:23.840 --> 0:18:26.480 that when they had albino rats that were complete strangers, 0:18:27.480 --> 0:18:31.360 and the free albino rat came across the stranger albino 0:18:31.480 --> 0:18:35.240 rat that was in the container, it would free it. Okay, 0:18:35.920 --> 0:18:38.680 if they put this is the short and dirty of this. Okay, 0:18:38.800 --> 0:18:41.960 if they put the black hooded rat in a container 0:18:42.720 --> 0:18:45.280 and they were both strangers, the albino rat would not 0:18:45.760 --> 0:18:50.359 free it. However, if later on the albino rat was 0:18:50.440 --> 0:18:55.080 housed with the black hooded rat, it would free it. 0:18:55.359 --> 0:18:57.520 So it had to have some sort of relationship or 0:18:57.600 --> 0:19:00.880 environmental contact with it. And then they found out too 0:19:00.920 --> 0:19:04.879 that once the albino rat had the experience with a 0:19:04.920 --> 0:19:09.359 different strain i e. The black hooded rat, that it 0:19:09.440 --> 0:19:14.320 would then release other strangers who happened to be black 0:19:14.320 --> 0:19:17.199 hooded rats. And the implications of that are really interesting 0:19:17.200 --> 0:19:19.440 because you see that play out in society. Right, we 0:19:19.520 --> 0:19:23.000 see a stranger, we're not so certain about that person, 0:19:23.080 --> 0:19:24.640 we're not so trusting. We don't know if we want 0:19:24.640 --> 0:19:28.240 to help that person because they are apart from us, right, 0:19:28.440 --> 0:19:32.080 But once you experienced that person as another, as part 0:19:32.119 --> 0:19:35.919 of your circle, or you relate with that to that person, 0:19:36.160 --> 0:19:39.000 then you want to help that person. Right. Yeah. It's 0:19:39.000 --> 0:19:42.359 like straight up enemy mind with Dennis Quaid and Lewis 0:19:42.359 --> 0:19:45.080 Gossip Jr. It's the human and the alien and they 0:19:45.119 --> 0:19:47.160 hate each other in the crash land on the same planet. 0:19:47.280 --> 0:19:50.359 But then they learn, uh that they get to know 0:19:50.440 --> 0:19:52.159 each other, they have respect for each other, and suddenly 0:19:52.160 --> 0:19:54.880 they're looking after each other against a greater enemy. Yeah. 0:19:54.960 --> 0:19:56.840 And so what I think is interesting about that is 0:19:56.880 --> 0:19:59.000 that it kind of proves that this idea that the 0:19:59.040 --> 0:20:02.000 more diversity that have aren't exposed to well, the more 0:20:02.080 --> 0:20:04.879 empathy that you can exhibit, and the more connection that 0:20:04.960 --> 0:20:07.520 you have with your fellow rats or your fellow humans, 0:20:08.240 --> 0:20:11.240 and moreover, According to Benamy Bartel, who is one of 0:20:11.240 --> 0:20:14.320 the researchers on the two thousand and fourteen project, he said, quote, 0:20:14.320 --> 0:20:17.719 we share the same neural structure with rats that we 0:20:17.840 --> 0:20:23.360 use for our own epathetic responses. Our brain structures are 0:20:23.440 --> 0:20:27.440 responding in the same way. They are shaped in the 0:20:27.560 --> 0:20:30.360 same way when it comes to those sort of responses 0:20:30.400 --> 0:20:33.640 that require us to be empathetic. Now, at this point 0:20:33.680 --> 0:20:35.160 you might be saying, all right, well, that's that's all 0:20:35.240 --> 0:20:38.080 well and good. They can display some level of of empathy. 0:20:38.119 --> 0:20:41.320 But what about what about higher thought? What about higher 0:20:41.400 --> 0:20:45.080 levels of human thoughts such as um meta cognition. Uh, 0:20:45.119 --> 0:20:48.959 we're talking the ability to reflect on one's own mental processes. 0:20:49.000 --> 0:20:51.199 And this is this key stuff to human experience. Right, 0:20:51.440 --> 0:20:54.600 this is enough that makes or can make us rational animals. 0:20:54.600 --> 0:20:59.240 It's it's about realizing, oh, I I don't have enough 0:20:59.280 --> 0:21:00.800 in my head to call this problem. I need to 0:21:00.840 --> 0:21:05.080 do some homework. Or in loftier scenarios, it's the straight 0:21:05.160 --> 0:21:07.679 up sort of meditative that car tot a kind of 0:21:07.680 --> 0:21:10.200 a situation where you're stepping outside of your own thoughts 0:21:10.200 --> 0:21:14.159 and looking at them. Well, four rats, we see this 0:21:14.200 --> 0:21:16.639 as well. At two thousand seven, studied by researchers at 0:21:16.640 --> 0:21:20.359 the University of Georgia, the researchers trained rats to press 0:21:20.400 --> 0:21:22.720 a lever when they heard a short burst of static, 0:21:23.000 --> 0:21:25.679 and another one when they heard a long burst of static. 0:21:25.960 --> 0:21:29.199 Push the correct one, rat, and you will get a 0:21:29.280 --> 0:21:33.040 food pellet. Push the wrong one and you get nothing. Uh. 0:21:33.040 --> 0:21:36.320 It's it's what we call a duration discrimination test. And 0:21:36.320 --> 0:21:39.240 there's an additional catch here. If the rats decline the 0:21:39.280 --> 0:21:42.919 test completely, they receive a smaller reward anyway, like a 0:21:42.920 --> 0:21:45.760 half pellet. I can think of it as a consolation prize, 0:21:45.800 --> 0:21:47.440 you know. It's like a big moment on the game 0:21:47.440 --> 0:21:49.480 show where you can you can go for the big 0:21:49.480 --> 0:21:51.720 prize behind door number three, or just take home the 0:21:51.760 --> 0:21:55.600 washing machine that you already won. Now that probably sounds 0:21:55.600 --> 0:21:58.440 all pretty straightforward, right, But then the researchers start tinkering 0:21:58.480 --> 0:22:01.280 with the links of the static bird, making it harder 0:22:01.320 --> 0:22:04.800 for the rats to aceh the test and reap the rewards. 0:22:04.840 --> 0:22:07.240 So the core findings here when when the rats were 0:22:07.400 --> 0:22:11.199 uncertain about what they knew about the test and its parameters. 0:22:11.240 --> 0:22:14.760 They find themselves unsure how long has that burst? In 0:22:15.200 --> 0:22:17.600 which level am I supposed to to pull? They just 0:22:17.640 --> 0:22:19.800 cut their losses. They go with the smaller reward. In 0:22:19.840 --> 0:22:22.719 other words, they admit that they don't know, they're thinking 0:22:22.760 --> 0:22:27.160 about thinking um and that there they realize their understanding 0:22:27.200 --> 0:22:29.000 of the situation is it's strong enough and it's better 0:22:29.080 --> 0:22:33.280 not to play and take that consolation prize. You know 0:22:33.280 --> 0:22:35.600 what I like about this is that it's first of 0:22:35.600 --> 0:22:40.280 all the fact that those medium tones which were ambiguous, 0:22:41.200 --> 0:22:43.119 you know, like it's easy to get those short and 0:22:43.119 --> 0:22:45.679 long ones right for humans, but those ambiguous ones are 0:22:45.720 --> 0:22:48.479 hard for us as well. I mean, it's not just rats. 0:22:48.920 --> 0:22:52.199 And I like that they that they are admitting to 0:22:52.320 --> 0:22:54.760 a certain degree like I'm not quite sure what my 0:22:54.840 --> 0:22:57.320 path is. But also there's this kind of like Vegas 0:22:57.359 --> 0:22:59.400 odds thing at work here, Like I feel like there's 0:22:59.400 --> 0:23:01.639 going to be a round to to the Vegas version. 0:23:02.440 --> 0:23:06.679