Forget cheese – these rats need speed.
Scientists who teach rats to drive have discovered that not only are the rodents capable of driving their tiny cars, but they also enjoy it and even get a thrill out of getting their engines revving.
University of Richmond professor and neuroscientist Kelly Lambert has been leading the study since 2019, and during this time she and her team have found that the whiskered animals really do enjoy driving their miniature vehicles.
“Unexpectedly, we found that the rats were highly motivated to learn to drive, often jumping into the car and revving the ‘lever engine’ before their vehicle hit the road,” Lambert wrote in an essay for The Conversation last week.
Lambert’s research aims to explore the relationship between animals and their environment, how their cognition develops and how they learn new skills. The rat driving study went viral in 2022 and was even featured in a Netflix documentary.
The new discovery also showed that the rats were looking forward to the opportunity to drive in advance.
“The three rats trained to drive ran eagerly to the edge of the cage, bouncing up and down like my dog does when asked if he wants to go for a walk,” Lambert writes.
“Did the rats always do this and I just didn’t notice? Were they just craving sweets, or were they anticipating the drive itself? Either way, they were feeling something positive – perhaps excitement and anticipation.”
Her team concluded that the rats’ arousal may have resulted from a combination of a Pavlovian response – knowing they would be rewarded with a treat for the trip – and the positive experience of driving their pint-sized vehicles.
Lambert trained the rats to correlate driving with rewards – coveted sweets that encouraged them to step on the gas.
But even without the reward, she noticed that the rodents still wanted to slow down in their mini-cars.
“Instead of pushing buttons for instant reward, they remind us that planning, anticipation, and enjoyment of a ride can be the key to a healthy brain,” she wrote.
