Rat-Operated Vehicles and The Power of Music
Why do rats love driving tiny cars? And why do we love listening to music?
Hey Braniacs,
Welcome to this week’s newsletter! Let's explore how learning a new skill can improve our stress response, and why live music is just so much better than the recording. Oh, and now there’s such a thing as a rat-operated vehicle.
Rats Can Drive?
Yes! A new study shows that rats can learn to drive and they actually enjoy it1. Rats that learned to drive, regardless of the environment they came from, had reduced stress levels and greater emotional resilience after learning to drive. Cue a film director with a new plot for a sci-fi film where rats drive humans everywhere. But seriously, this study has so many implications for the brain health of humans, that we have to dive straight in.
This study shows that our behaviour can actually change our brain chemistry1. The rats that learned to drive had an increased dehydroepiandrosterone/corticosterone (DHEA/CORT) metabolite ratio at the end of training, which is consistent with emotional resilience2. Dehydroepiandrosterone is an anti-stress hormone in rats and corticosterone is a pro-stress hormone in rats, therefore, an increase in their ratio means less stressed rats3. This suggests that for humans, learning a new hobby or taking on a challenging task equips us with emotional resilience to handle future stresses. Even better news, rats from both enriched and deprived environments had lowered stress levels in response to learning to drive. So, no matter your background, learning a new hobby will be great for your mental health!
This study also changes the entire way we go about mental health research. To model different psychiatric conditions like schizophrenia and depression, researchers often get rodents to perform different tasks. These tasks, like navigating a maze, can show altered levels of motivation and increased stress responses4. Performing these tasks before and after an intervention can indicate how effective that intervention was. However, with the knowledge that rats can learn to drive cars, asking them to complete a maze seems ridiculously easy. It is now widely accepted that a lot of the tasks we ask rodents to perform are not as representative of mental illness as we thought, and this study adds to that growing pile of controversy5,6. The discovery that rats can learn to drive will likely improve future research into psychiatric conditions.
And here’s a link to watch them drive:
You’re welcome.
How did they do it? The 11 rats were placed in a closed arena with a food treat available in one location. The goal was to drive the car to the treats. The training took place across three five-minute sessions a week, for eight weeks. The location of the food and starting point of the car would change throughout the sessions, to increase complexity.
Why is music the best?
Listening to music is therapeutic. We don’t need science to tell us that. Whether it’s dancing around the kitchen blasting Miley Cyrus (don’t judge me - y'all know I’m a diehard country and blues fan but Miley is top tier too), or being brought to tears at a concert, music is good for the soul. But did you know that listening to music has been shown to improve cognition? It can improve our verbal skills, our working memory, and help us to regulate our emotions.
Music has all of these benefits because it activates lots of different brain areas. In particular, listening to music has been shown to increase blood flow to the limbic system, which is a brain system important in processing emotion and controlling memories7. Listening to music also causes the release of dopamine, a rewarding neurotransmitter (brain chemical) that makes us feel happy and motivated8,9. It’s this release of dopamine that helps decrease our perception of pain and feelings of anxiety, which is why listening to music can be so relaxing10!
We can all agree then that music is great and we should listen to it more. And maybe we should learn to play it too since adults who learn to play musical instruments have less cognitive decline with ageing11. But the pièce de résistance is a new study that shows that we process live music differently than recorded music12!
Live music makes us feel more emotional and connected than recorded music because it activates brain areas with greater strength12. Listening to live music produces more intense, more consistent, and more widespread brain activity in the left amygdala, a brain region that is part of the limbic system, in charge of our emotions. Importantly, the left amygdala plays a role in assigning stimuli (such as sound) to a certain emotion13! This is partly why remembering a concert gives a strong emotional memory. The study also found that live music stimulates a broad interconnected limbic-cortical network, which may explain how music leads to improved cognitive performance. So, if you need an excuse to buy those concert tickets, you’ve got it.
How did they do it? 27 participants were recruited to listen to 12 pieces of music. The 12 pieces of music were played twice, once by a live pianist and once on a recording. Participants laid in an MRI scanner so that their brain activity could be monitored whilst they were listening to the music.
Your serotonin-boosting playlist!
Here it is! My mixtape.Â
I included lots of songs suggested by you guys on Instagram, as well as some of my own. But if you don’t see your suggestion, please accept my apologies! There was a lot to get through and I tried my best.Â
Life Updates
On the topic of learning something new, you may already know that I have taken it upon myself to learn the guitar! I’m currently rocking a Gretsch Electromatic Rat Rod; my absolute dream guitar. It’s an electric guitar which can double up as a semi-acoustic because of the hollow body which can create resonance without an amp. Of course, plugging it into an amp is the desired effect.Â
I’m almost at the point where I feel confident to play you all a little song. Stay tuned, because if anyone is going to get a preview of me, it’ll be you guys.Â
I wanted to show people that it’s never too late to get good at something. And whilst I can appreciate that being 32 is not old at all, many people do still believe that after the age of 25 it’s near impossible to become skilled at something like playing guitar. I also plan to get really good, which leads me to the concept of mindsets. More on this next week!
Until next week,
Nicole x
P.S. Please leave comments with what topics you’d like to be covered in future weeks!
References
I’m obsessed with the happy rats and their cars!