Rats Hiding From Scary "Robogator" Reveal How The Brain Creates A “Worry Map” | IFLScience

Anxiety can act as a great motivator to avoid potentially uncomfortable interactions, and it seems that even rats may fall victim to it. A new study involving rats being let loose in a maze populated by food-guarding robots has revealed how their brains behaved when anticipating future threats, changing their behavior so that they could avoid bumping into them. The findings underpin the role of the hippocampus in anxiety-like behaviors, a mechanism that could be an important target for anxiety medications.

Worrying about future events becomes particularly significant in “approach-avoidance conflict,” whereby we are put off getting something we want because we're concerned about encountering something unpleasant in the process. For humans, that might be retrieving your post from the weird neighbor it was left with – but to model the same behavior in rats, scientists turned to robots.

They created an L-shaped arena with the rats at one end and food at the other, but around the corner, a food-guarding robot was lurking. The "robogator," as it was nicknamed, would sometimes simulate an attack on the rats when they approached, charging forward while screeching and moving its jaws and tail – and suffice it to say, the rats were not a fan. The presence of the robogator was enough to alter their behaviors, hesitating before even beginning the assault course, hiding around the corner, and sometimes abandoning the mission altogether.

Leave a Comment