Case Study 40 Long-Evans Male Rats

Thereby, Skinner produced experiments whereby rats would navigate through mazes to achieve the goal of a box containing food. His interest was the behaviour of the rat, taking the right turn to achieve the desired result, food. To begin with the rats would take the wrong turn but with experience, they became more skilful. The rats learning behaviour was measured in two ways, firstly the length of time it took from start to end and secondly, the reduction in errors. This was a lengthy experiment which led Skinner to produce ‘the Skinner box’. Whereby, rats learnt to press a lever and pigeons learnt to peck a key in order to attain food, also known as behaviour shaping. This experiment lacks ecological validity as the animals are kept in a controlled environment which is dissimilar to their natural habitat. However, the results which were attained could not have been possible in natural circumstances. Skinner wanted to observe if behaviour could be learned through reaching a desired outcome such as positive reinforcement which needed to be

What is it like to be a barn rat? A barn rat is probably a term that you have never

PURPOSE: The purpose of this experiment is to encourage discrimination in rat #4, to measure how the rat distinguishes between pressing the lever when a light is on, and when it is off. Discrimination is the tendency for behavior to occur in situations that are very similar to the one in which the behavior was learned, but not in situations that differ from it. Therefore, as the lamp light was on while the rat was learning to press the lever in previous experiments, the tendency for the rat to discriminate when the light is on, or off, will be measured in this experiment.

- At the start of 5th week of training the Fmr1 rats, we have one rat that started its baseline training, which is testing its behavior on the set criterion for 5 days, following which the rat will be subjected to challenge training schedules to test their reaction to stressors and distractors. Currently, the rats performance is up to the mark; accuracy more than 80% and omissions less than 20%.

In the trigger piece, Anandwardhan Hardikar and his team hypothesised the following causal connection: having recent ancestors from a developing nation is a contributing cause of type 2 diabetes.

The rattus rattus, more known as the black rats, are well known rodent species with long tails which are considered invasive to the United States. The black rats first originated from Tropical Asia, were then introduced to East Asia, then were spread to Europe, and finally were introduced to the United States as they were coming along with European travelers. A regular black rat adult is usually around 12.75 to 18.25cm (5.9-7.19 in) long, 15 to 22cm (5.8-9.7 in) tall, and weighs around 70 to 23 grams. The rat has a thin coat of black fur, and it somewhat smaller than the brown rat.

In addition to the 52-week toxicity in infant monkeys, the 2010 Swiss mice study has also been cited in the general aspartame debate. Before this study occurred, previous lifespan experiments conducted on Sprague-Dawley rats have shown that aspartame exposure, starting from prenatal life, increases carcinogenetic effects in rats . This study aimed to validate aspartame’s link to causing cancer in rats . Furthermore, rodents—rats and mice—were used in this study because they, like primates, are one of the four super-orders of placental mammals . There were six groups of 62-112 male and female mice, which were treated with aspartame . They were fed at dosages of 32,000, 16,000, 8,000, 2,000, or 0 ppm from 12 days of conception to death . After

The independent variable in this experiment was whether the rat was raised in isolation with no toys or in group with toys and which cage they were tested in whether it was the home cage or a new cage. The dependent variable was how many times rats in each scenario stuck their noses in the candles flame. Results showed that almost every rat stuck their nose into the flame in pure curiosity however, rats raised in a restricted environment and placed in a new environment stuck their noses in almost double the amount of times than any other rat did. These results indicate that rats raised in isolation handle stress differently and that those in isolation have poor pain avoidance. I liked this study because it shows that curiosity is prominent in rats as in humans although it only takes us one time to realize something hurts to not do it again. It also shows that something raised in isolation reacts to stress in a negative way and proceeds to harm themselves and with this evidence we can maybe understand why depression can lead to

We further confirmed the anxiety in the elevated plus maze (EPM) test. Head-dipping is a compulsive-like behavior that implicates a high risk for anxiety (139, 140). β-Cat-PV-cKO mice significantly increased their head-dipping behavior, especially at the center region of the plus maze apparatus. Interestingly, in the tail suspension test, the depression-related behavior of our mice was not affected (92). Another core symptom of ASD is repetitive behavior. To determine if β-cat cKO in PV+ neurons leads to changes of repetitive behavior, we measured the total grooming time in a testing session of 25 minutes. β-Cat-PV-cKO mice had significantly more grooming time than their control littermates. Thus, our data demonstrate that β-cat cKO in PV+ neurons alter the neuronal network and lead to autistic-like behaviors.

The stagnance of indoor life for a pet can promote a degeneration of cognitive functions, reaction times specifically. Comparing a dog that recieves spacial excercise and interaction to one whose idea of fun is running a circle around the living room would show that the intellect of the animal is fostered by greater stimulation of it's natural instincts. Through chasing a stick along the grass, the brain of a dog synthesizes the endorphines associated with the hunt, some would say a dog's primary purpose.

Adult mice between 8–24 weeks of age were used and handled in accordance with the IACUC

In many parts of the world, rats have invaded in and out of people’s homes. Rat infestation has been a problem for generation after generation. Rat overpopulation is a result of various causes and they can cause a multitude of problems for humans. When searching for a solution to the overpopulation of rats, one must first consider the origins of the problem, the dangers it is causing, and how to eradicate them.

The primary aim of this experiment was to determine if rats would gain a renewal of exploratory behavior due to displaced objects after habituation had settled in. Based on results from these previously mentioned experiments, we hypothesized that subjects were capable of renewing exploratory behavior in a spatially reorganized environment. However, this was under the assumption that complications such as age and species type were inapplicable.

These rats breed quite frequently. Once the female enters her six-hour estrus period, she can mate up to five hundred times with other males. After 18 hours of giving birth, the females will mate again. The range of offspring is 2-14. These rats typically die after 2 years. The reason they die is mostly due to the several different types of diseases. Some different diseases are murine typhus,leptospirosis, trichinosis, salmonellosis (food poisoning), and rat bite fever. These different diseases can be passed onto humans as well. This is a problem for humans because these diseases can get humans very sick and possibly death. Also, these rats can produce very quickly. This will be a problem for humans because these rats are very invasive.

The equipment used to carry out this experiment was a computer based program located on the St. Francis Xavier University server. The program called “Sniffy- The Virtual Rat” generated the realistic responses of a rat. This program allowed experimenters to humanely learn about rats and their behaviours when placed in a Skinner box. This program simulated what a typical rat would do on a typical day in a Skinner box.