Department of Medical Technology, Kawasaki University of Medical Welfare, Okayama 701-0193, Japan.
Department of Psychiatry, Kawasaki Medical School, Kurashiki 701-0192, Japan.
Behav Neurol. 2020 Feb 3;2020:4071315. doi: 10.1155/2020/4071315. eCollection 2020.
Patients with brain function disorders due to stroke or dementia may show inability to recognize themselves in the mirror. Although the cognitive ability to recognize mirror images has been investigated in many animal species, the animal species that can be used for experimentation and the mechanisms involved in recognition remain unclear. We investigated whether mice have the ability to recognize their mirror images. Demonstrating evidence of this in mice would be useful for researching the psychological and biological mechanisms underlying this ability. We examined whether mice preferred mirrors, whether plastic tapes on their heads increased their interest, and whether mice accustomed to mirrors learnt its physical phenomenon. Mice were significantly more interested in live stranger mice than mirrors. Mice with tape on their heads spent more time before mirrors. Becoming accustomed to mirrors did not change their behaviour. Mice accustomed to mirrors had significantly increased interest in photos of themselves over those of strangers and cage-mates. These results indicated that mice visually recognized plastic tape adherent to reflected individuals. Mice accustomed to mirrors were able to discriminate between their images, cage-mates, and stranger mice. However, it is still unknown whether mice recognize that the reflected images are of themselves.
由于中风或痴呆导致大脑功能障碍的患者可能表现出无法在镜子中认出自己。尽管已经在许多动物物种中研究了对镜像的认知能力，但可用于实验的动物物种以及涉及的识别机制仍不清楚。我们调查了老鼠是否有识别自己镜像的能力。如果老鼠能够证明这一点，这将有助于研究这种能力背后的心理和生物学机制。我们检查了老鼠是否更喜欢镜子，头上的塑料胶带是否会增加它们的兴趣，以及是否习惯于镜子的老鼠会了解其物理现象。老鼠对活的陌生老鼠比对镜子更感兴趣。头上有胶带的老鼠在镜子前花费的时间更多。习惯镜子并没有改变它们的行为。习惯于镜子的老鼠对自己的照片比对陌生老鼠和同笼老鼠的照片更感兴趣。这些结果表明，老鼠通过视觉识别附着在反射个体上的塑料胶带。习惯于镜子的老鼠能够区分自己的图像、同笼老鼠和陌生老鼠。然而，目前尚不清楚老鼠是否认识到反射的图像是它们自己的。
