Khvatov Ivan A, Ganza Polina N, Kharitonov Alexander N, Samuleeva Maria V
Center for Biopsychological Studies, Moscow Institute of Psychoanalysis, 121170 Moscow, Russia.
Institute of Psychology, Russian Academy of Sciences, 129366 Moscow, Russia.
Animals (Basel). 2024 Nov 25;14(23):3384. doi: 10.3390/ani14233384.
Body size awareness is the ability of animals to consider the size of their bodies when interacting with environmental objects. It is one of the manifestations of body self-awareness. We studied body size awareness in laboratory rats of Wistar strain. In the experiment, rats had to pass through one of three holes in a partition to reach the bait. In each trial, the shape, size, and position of the holes varied. The task of the first experiment was to establish whether rats prefer to pass through the larger holes, given that all the three were penetrable for their bodies. The task of the second experiment was to establish whether rats can choose the only penetrable hole while the other two were of a greater area but impenetrable. The results of the first experiment showed that the rats did not show a preference for larger holes. The results of the second experiment showed that rats can make the first approach and subsequent penetration immediately into the only penetrable hole even before the tactile contact with the partition. Thus, rats can consider the size of their own body when solving the task of penetrating into a hole, which is a sign of body size awareness. These results enrich our general understanding of the phenomenon of body self-awareness.
身体大小意识是动物在与环境物体互动时考虑自身身体大小的能力。它是身体自我意识的表现之一。我们研究了Wistar品系实验大鼠的身体大小意识。在实验中，大鼠必须穿过隔板上的三个洞之一才能获取诱饵。在每次试验中，洞的形状、大小和位置都有所不同。第一个实验的任务是确定在三个洞对其身体都可穿透的情况下，大鼠是否更喜欢穿过较大的洞。第二个实验的任务是确定在另外两个洞面积更大但不可穿透的情况下，大鼠是否能够选择唯一可穿透的洞。第一个实验的结果表明，大鼠对较大的洞没有表现出偏好。第二个实验的结果表明，大鼠甚至在与隔板进行触觉接触之前，就能直接首次靠近并随后穿透唯一可穿透的洞。因此，大鼠在解决穿洞任务时能够考虑自身身体大小，这是身体大小意识的一个标志。这些结果丰富了我们对身体自我意识现象的总体认识。
