SoylentNews

Scientists Investigating Brain Disorders Engineer Unusually Intelligent Mice

posted by martyb on Wednesday August 19 2015, @01:26PM   
from the Flowers-for-Algernon dept.

patella.whack writes:

As reported in Science Daily, researchers at University of Leeds have created unusually intelligent mice [abstract only] by altering a single gene and as a result the mice were also less likely to feel anxiety or recall fear.

In behavioural tests, the...mice showed enhanced cognitive abilities. They tended to learn faster, remember events longer and solve complex exercises better than ordinary mice.

For example, the "brainy mice" showed a better ability than ordinary mice to recognise another mouse that they had been introduced to the day before. They were also quicker at learning the location of a hidden escape platform in a test called the Morris water maze.

They also showed less recall of a fearful event after several days than ordinary mice which could be of interest to researchers looking for treatments for pathological fear, typified by Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Ordinary mice are naturally fearful of cats, but these mice showed a decreased fear response to cat urine, suggesting that one effect could be an increase in risk-taking behaviour.

The researchers are now working on developing drugs that will be tested in animals to see whether any would be suitable for clinical trials in humans.

---

Original Submission

• Re:You call that intelligence? Re:You call that intelligence? (Score: 3, Funny) by The Archon V2.0 on Wednesday August 19 2015, @02:25PM

  by The Archon V2.0 (3887) on Wednesday August 19 2015, @02:25PM (#224994)

  It depends. Are the mice engaging in more dangerous behavior to gain a material advantage like extra food, or are they engaging in more dangerous behavior while taking selfies and squeaking "YOLO!" ?

  Parent

  Starting Score:	1		point
  Moderation		+1
  Funny=1, Total=1
  Extra 'Funny' Modifier		0
  Karma-Bonus Modifier		+1
  Total Score:		3

• Re:You call that intelligence? (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 19 2015, @03:07PM

  by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 19 2015, @03:07PM (#225027)

  From TFA:

  We exploited murine aversion to cat odors (Vyas et al, 2007) by baiting a T-maze with food pellets in one arm and bobcat urine in the opposite arm. PDE4B+/+ mice avoided the bobcat urine arm, whereas PDE4BY358C/Y358C mice explored both arms equally (Figure 2d). This difference was not attributable to impaired olfaction (Supplementary Figure 3a).

  I can't find the supplements on the journal page, so cannot check that. But figure 2d shows the normal mice had ~40% "Cat Urine Arm Visits" and the mutant mice had ~50% of these (I am guessing that means percent of total arm visits). It is not really clear, but sounds like they may have had less opportunity for food if spending more time exploring that cat urine arm. If they were less hungry you would get such an effect. However, from the description, it is possible they spent more time in the food arm and just popped their head in the urine one a few times.

  Parent

• Re:You call that intelligence? (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 19 2015, @03:54PM

  by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 19 2015, @03:54PM (#225053)

  We have previously shown that decreasing environmental threat by dimming the lights results in increased exploration with consequent improvement in memory

  It sounds like all these results could also be explained if the knockout had some effect on eyesight or light sensitivity. In the extreme case of the mice being blind they would be unaware they are in open areas and need to rely upon smell and hearing. They would need to explore new environments to a greater extent and be less reliant upon visual cues. Maybe not though, not enough info available at this point.

  Parent