The rats found the memory of forgotten memories
The authors of a study published in the journal Animal Cognition, the first time found evidence in rats of metaplace — the ability to understand the functioning of their own memory, what they remember and what is forgotten.
This discovery could be useful for modeling in rats of human diseases associated with abnormalities in metaplace, for example, Alzheimer’s disease.
In humans, the presence of metaplace to identify quite simple, though, because you can observe the adoption decisions, to ask and get a verbal response. For example, when you run a test, students often miss the issues that cause them to have difficulties, that is, they assess their knowledge and understand what you know and what is not. Animals have to answer to this question is complicated and so the subject the presence or absence of metaplace quite controversial, so researchers have to rely solely on behavior. Before the experiments were conducted on birds, primates and rats, but the results were ambiguous. Therefore, in this study, the researchers approached the problem very responsibly, and tried to avoid any misunderstandings, find out rats meta-memory or not.
The authors chose nine rats and carried out the following experiment: in a test chamber with sand were mixed 4 smelling substances — cinnamon, thyme, paprika and coffee. Scientists have taught rats to dig in sand and the animals had to memorize the smell that they smelled. In another cell there were four plates with each smell, and had to choose the one that had found in the sand. If the rat was determined this plate correctly, it received a treat, and if wrong, you got nothing. In this formulation of the experiment, the animals chose the wrong plate in 48% of cases. Next, the researchers decided to add a fifth bowl — unscented to give the rats the opportunity to choose it in case they forgot before found smell. If animals chose the bowl, you get a quarter of the Goodies. The expansion of opportunities for choice, the rats began to approach the wrong plates in 39% of cases. According to the authors, this may not be due to accident. In this empty plate rats began to choose in 20% of cases.
via GIPHY
Scholars have rightly pointed out that rats chose a fifth plate due to the fact that they received at least some reward. But there’s a caveat — that is, the animals forget what the smell smelled when digging sand, and not to risk, choosing the dish that would certainly have provided them with at least some Goodies.
Thus the rats realized that I forgot the smell, and chose the option that guaranteed them at least a small reward.
Accordingly, this confirms the presence of metaplace in rats.