Rats have an imagination, new research finds

Read more at In this video: A new brain-machine interface and virtual reality system for rats. In this experiment, a rat uses this system to navigate to a goal solely by thinking about where it wants to go. According to the rules of this system, physical movement by the rat does not affect the rat’s location in the virtual environment. Only by controlling its hippocampal brain activity can the rat control where it goes. Specifically, in this system the animal is virtually moved toward the ’decoded location’ that the hippocampal activity represents. Credit: Lai et al. DOI: Subscribe: Join Science X channel to support our mission: Thank you for helping our YouTube channel reach new heights! Hitting subscribe aids us in our mission to bring you the latest and greatest research news in science, medicine and technology.