Takano Yuji, Ukezono Masatoshi
1] NTT Communication Science Laboratories, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation [2] CREST, Japan Science and Technology Agency.
1] NTT Communication Science Laboratories, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation [2] CREST, Japan Science and Technology Agency [3] Department of Psychology, Meiji Gakuin University.
Sci Rep. 2014 Oct 17;4:6652. doi: 10.1038/srep06652.
The mirror system in the brain is considered to be a neural basis of sociality, but previous studies have been limited to primates. Here we report an experimental task to examine the mirror system in rats. We show that a rat could reach to a pellet and grasp and eat it in front of another rat that was observing the reaching, which indicates that the task will enable us to start exploring the rat mirror system.
大脑中的镜像系统被认为是社会性的神经基础,但先前的研究仅限于灵长类动物。在此,我们报告一项用于检测大鼠镜像系统的实验任务。我们发现,一只大鼠能够在另一只正在观察其抓取动作的大鼠面前够到一颗小丸并抓取吃掉,这表明该任务将使我们能够开始探索大鼠的镜像系统。