Rats Demonstrate Jedi-Like Ability to Control Digital Objects with Brain Power

In a feat reminiscent of Yoda lifting X-wings from a swamp in Star Wars, rats have demonstrated the ability to lift digital cubes and place them near a target using only their imagination. Unlike Yoda, however, these rats don't possess the Force. They were simply using their brain power.

This unusual ability, which was detailed in the Science issue of November 3, gives us insights into how the brain can anticipate future events and recall past ones.

UCLA neurophysicist Mayank Mehta describes the research as "fantastic," adding that it opens up "a lot of exciting possibilities." He suggests that a better grasp of the brain area involved could assist scientists in diagnosing and treating memory disorders.

Albert Lee, a neuroscientist, and his team are focused on exploring how the brain can revisit past memories and predict potential future scenarios, a phenomenon often referred to as “mental time travel.” According to Lee, who conducted the new study while at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Janelia Research Campus in Ashburn, Va., these processes contribute to the richness and complexity of our mental lives.

To investigate the intricacies of the brain, the researchers started with a simple question: "Can we be at one place and think about another?”, which is what these rats are doing. Lee, who is now an HHMI investigator at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, was quick to remind us that the rats weren’t required to recall complex memories like past vacations.

Lee, neuroscientist and engineer Chongxi Lai, also now at Beth Israel Deaconess, and their fellow researchers trained the rats to move on a spherical treadmill in the middle of a 3-D virtual world projected onto a screen. The responses from nerve cells in the rats’ hippocampi—a brain area known to store intricate spatial information—were recorded while they navigated the environment. This enabled the researchers to associate the recorded brain activity with locations in the virtual world.

In the next phase, the researchers were curious to see if the rats could navigate the virtual world using imagination. The rats were taught to move a virtual cube to a twisty column by activating particular brain activity patterns in the hippocampus. Successful completion of the task grant the rats a water treat. During this experiment, control of the virtual world was given to the rats brain, rendering their physical activity on the treadmill irrelevant.

Upon sufficient training, the rats executed the task seamlessly, as evidenced by their brain activity. Through activating the right cell pattern in their hippocampi, they were able to focus and position the cube close to the twisty column for several seconds. In a separate task, the rats mentally teleported to the twisty column within the virtual world.

A view from inside the virtual world that rats saw in a new study shows a tall, twisty column (left). With only their brains at work, rats reliably moved a virtual cube to the required column, the researchers revealed.

The findings provide "strong evidence that rats can use imagination to perform novel, artificial tasks,” says neuroscientist Daoyun Ji of Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, who was not involved in this particular study. This ability is not limited to rats, as he states "It is likely we humans imagine by activating hippocampal memories too,”.

The hippocampus, Mehta explains, is a highly complex structure located deep in the brain that is not fully understood. Research, including Mehta's, demonstrates that various factors influence cell activities in this region beyond just abstract spatial locations. "There is clearly a lot to be considered,” states Mehta. He further insinuates that devices using neural signals from the hippocampus could in the future perform more complex tasks, such as controlling computers and robotic limbs.

Lee suggests that compared to rats, humans probably have a larger repertoire, can control their hippocampus for longer durations and have more complex concepts encoded in their brains.

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