Rats avoid harming other rats. The finding may help us understand sociopaths.

[yortsed snacilbuper]

It might be time to reconsider what it means to call someone a “rat.”

Previous research has shown the much-maligned rodents assist comrades in need, as well as remember individual rats that have helped them—and return the favor.

Now, a new study builds on this evidence of empathy, revealing that domestic rats will avoid harming other rats.

In the study, published March 5 in the journal Current Biology, rats were trained to pull levers to get a tasty sugar pellet. If the lever delivered a mild shock to a neighbor, several of the rats stopped pulling that lever and switched to another.

Harm aversion, as it's known, is a well-known human trait regulated by a part of the brain called the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). Further experiments showed the ACC controls this behavior in rats, too. This is the first time scientists have found the ACC is necessary for harm aversion in a non-human species.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/lifestyle-buzz/rats-avoid-harming-other-rats-the-finding-may-help-us-understand-sociopaths/ar-BB10NmoF?ocid=spartanntp

[Throck]

1. Not from what I saw at the pet store.

Job from many moons ago.

We tried to keep the pet rats separated by sex. Inevitably one momma would give birth. If a male rat was in the same enclosure he'd start eating the babies and would be joined in by the other female rats. Nobody was a biology expert at the store but it was believed that it was about food competition.

[exboyfil]

3. It is all in how they were raised

I guess.

I wonder if it would be different if they naturally form family groups like they do in the wild? There you have a Darwinian reason for preserving the genes of your nieces and nephews.

[exboyfil]

2. The rats do better than humans did on the Milgram shock experiment

Who would have thought it.

Maybe they need Ben to tell them to continue the shocks (an old movie - sequel to Willard).