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Faster than light mouse problem4/2/2023 ![]() ![]() Whether these "rules" resulted from experiences or if they are genetically hardwired into the brain remains to be discovered. Additionally, the mice tended to alternate taking lefts and rights when exploring. All 19 mice had a strong preference to keep moving forward and not turn around. The 19 mice used in the study all tended to follow certain "rules of exploration." For example, when encountering a juncture, a mouse can choose to go left, right, or back the way it came. The most direct route requires six correct decisions. After first discovering the water port, the mouse takes on average only 10 tries to figure out the most efficient, direct route to the port from its home cage. Though a thirsty mouse does not know there is water located inside, it will explore the maze methodically. In about half of these experiments, the mouse was thirsty and could be assumed to be motivated by a drive to find water. We allow the mouse to make the kinds of decisions that mice make rather than force them to accept some abstract task that really has no relevance." We just come back seven hours later and analyze videos of what the mouse did during that time. "We don't exert any influence on the animal. "In this study, we expose a mouse to a complex labyrinth environment, turn on a camera, and just walk out of the room," says Meister. The task, though it seems simple for humans, is not a very natural undertaking for a mouse. Even then, the mouse may only get it correct 80 percent of the time. A lab mouse, however, might need around 10,000 trials to correctly learn how to do a task such as this. Given that there are only two decisions to make-turn left or right-it would probably take you no time at all to learn this simple task. When a light comes on to your left, you must turn the wheel to the left when a light comes on to your right, you must turn the wheel to the right. Imagine a steering wheel is set in front of you. A paper describing the study appeared online in the journal eLife on July 21, 2021. Puckett Professor of Electrical Engineering. Biaggini Professor of Biological Sciences, and Pietro Perona, Allen E. The research is a collaboration between the laboratories of Markus Meister (Ph.D. ![]() Interestingly, Caltech graduate students performed similarly to mice in navigating a simulated version of the same maze. The study has implications for how we think about the brain and the body's role in intelligence. The mice rapidly learned how to navigate this unfamiliar environment about 1,000 times faster than mice generally learn simple yet unnatural tasks. Caltech researchers have now conducted a study in which they measured how mice navigate a complicated labyrinth, suggesting a new framework with which to study complex animal behaviors and learning. ![]()
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