Mouse in VR Maze

From "Intracellular dynamics of hippocampal place cells during virtual navigation." By Christopher D. Harvey, Forrest Collman, Daniel A. Dombeck & David W. Tank. Nature, Vol. 461 No. 7266, October 14, 2009.

• Category

  Science & Technology

[ghos7bear]

Why there is no weapon pickups?

[mrjimmyos]

Yeah, that poor mouse will be terribly bored until they hook up quake to that display

[t3hUBER]

No, no it's not. Electrodes are inserted into its skull, just like people get during similar procedures. The reason they start with mice is because they're simpler and easier to track the data.

[Jcolinsol]

What a terrifying visage.

[Francisco Boni]

This kind of research investigates the behavior of neurons and helps cracking the cognitive code of the mammalian brain. This kind of research will help people with brain damage, replacing brain parts. Holy ignorance.

[Bradley C]

Puppies here :D

[DoggieoProductions]

I commented on this soooo long ago haha! but yea :)

[crlums]

@theglobehopper actually, the scientists use this for a very clear cause. They used the virtual environment to explore the behavior of place neurons. Place neurons play a key role in mammals to determine their spatial location. They only fire during motion though. We do not have the tech to record from cells that are moving. The virtual environment allowed the cells to activate without actually moving so they could be studied. Research from this was published in Nature.

[pheonex]

you know it's skull is chopped off right?

[Iderbat G]

poor mouse ;'(

[MrMakaval]

that is a big shit... STOP ANIMAL SLAVERY

[Patrick Huynh]

how is this animal cruelity? In what way are they abusing this mouse? Its running on it's own accord and is navigating though an artificial environment! It can choose not to run, but it chooses it. it becomes animal cruelty once they FORCE it to run, using any means necessary.