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The first time one of these albino mutants was brought into a laboratory for a study was in 1828 for an experiment on fasting. Over the next 30 years, rats were used for several more experiments and eventually the laboratory rat became the first animal domesticated for purely scientific reasons. [2] Hooded
Individual rats would rarely eat except in the company of other rats. As a result extreme population densities developed in the pen adopted for eating, leaving the others with sparse populations. In the experiments in which the behavioral sink developed, infant mortality ran as high as 96 percent among the most disoriented groups in the population.
Rodents have been employed in biomedical experimentation from the 1650s. [1] Currently, rodents are commonly used in animal testing, particularly mice and rats, but also guinea pigs, hamsters, gerbils and others.
Experiments into behavior, to understand how organisms detect and interact with each other and their environment, in which fruit flies, worms, mice, and rats are all widely used. [ 195 ] [ 196 ] Studies of brain function, such as memory and social behavior, often use rats and birds.
Genetic variation, such as better peripheral vision, can make some rats “bright” and others “dull”, but does not determine their intelligence. [3] Nonetheless, Tryon’s famous rat-maze experiment demonstrated that the difference between rat performances was genetic since their environments were controlled and identical. [4]
A rat presses a button in an operant conditioning chamber. An operant conditioning chamber allows researchers to study animal behaviour and response to conditioning.They do this by teaching an animal to perform certain actions (like pressing a lever) in response to specific stimuli.
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH (1973), by Robert C. O'Brien and published in 1971, was inspired by Calhoun's work. [6] The book later inspired an animated film, The Secret of NIMH. Edmund Ramsden described one of Calhoun's experiments in which rats were placed in a sealed enclosure:
Morphine solution was sweetened to reduce averse reaction to the taste of morphine; as a control, prior to morphine introduction, rats were offered a sweetened quinine solution instead. Alexander designed a number of experiments to test the rats' willingness to consume the morphine. The Seduction Experiment involved four groups of 8 rats. [4]