Rat
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The research could be used to create "novel types of social interaction and for biological computing devices," lead scientist Miguel Nicolelis of Duke University writes in his summary of the study, published in Scientific Reports.
In the study, researchers trained rats to perform simple tasks to receive a reward based on either visual or physical stimuli. Scientists then implanted microelectrodes in the brains of the animals, which were split into "encoder" and "decoder" groups.
In one experiment, rats were shown a single light that indicated which of two levers to press for a drink of water. When it performed the task, signals were sent to another rat's brain in an identical cage, where the animal was shown two lights and two levers. The "decoding" rats were able to make the right choice more than 60 percent of the time. Rats are various medium-sized, long-tailed rodents of the superfamily Muroidea. "True rats" are members of the genus Rattus, the most important of which to humans are the black rat, Rattus rattus, and the brown rat, Rattus norvegicus. Many members of other rodent genera and families are also referred to as rats, and share many characteristics with true rats.
Rats are typically distinguished from mice by their size; rats are generally large muroid rodents, while mice are generally small muroid rodents. The muroid family is very large and complex, and the common terms rat and mouse are not taxonomically specific. Generally, when someone discovers a large muroid, its common name includes the term rat, while if it is small, the name includes the term mouse. Scientifically, the terms are not confined to members of the Rattus and Mus genera, for example, the pack rat and cotton mouse.
See also
- East Timor giant rat
- List of fictional mice and rats
- Mouse
- Oriental rat flea
- Rat (zodiac)
- Rat-baiting
- Rat-catcher
- Working rat
