Do Rats Dream
Testing Sleeping Rats
Most anyone who has rats or other animals can attest to the fact that their animals dream just by watching them while they sleep and according to Matthew Wilson of MIT's Center for Learning and Memory , "Like us, rats go through multiple stages of sleep, from slow-wave sleep to REM sleep. In humans, it is during REM sleep that most dreaming occurs."
Wilson who is an Associate Professor of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT along with Kenway Louie who is a biology graduate student trained rats to run on a circular track for a reward and while the rats ran their brain activity was monitored and then when they slept their brain activity was also monitored. What they found was that during both sleeping and as they ran on the track the hippococampus part of their brains which is involved in memories was stimulated.
They concluded that the animals were indeed dreaming and were even re-living what they had experienced during their day, like running in circles on the track for a treat.
Twitchy Whiskers
Rats, like most other animals can remember and learn from their experiences, which is why most animals can be trained to do tricks and learn their names or like my rats, know that when I get up in the morning that I am going to come over to their cage, give them a yogie treat and pet them all. They also know that after I get my coffee in the morning I will come over and let them all out and I can always tell they are waiting for me to do just that when their little faces are all pushed up to the front of the cage and they are full of excitement.
So the next time you seen your rats face and whiskers twitching while he is sleeping, try to remember what he was doing during the day and if he was running all over you and the floor and playing with you, you can smile and know he is having a good dream.
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Published by Mary Kirkland
Mary is originally from Redondo Beach, California and now lives in Las Vegas, Nevada with her husband and daughter. Mary has had extensive experience with small animal care as well as rescuing and re-homing.... View profile
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3 Comments
Post a Comment@ Michael, thanks so much for reading my articles. I'm glad you found them enjoyable.
I've been spending some time over the past week or so with your articles about your rats. I'm an animal person (you commented on my article on my parrot and cat), so I am really intrigued by all the insights you bring to rats. Thanks.
I don't know if I want to know *what* they dream -- but it's pretty cool.