How Do You Depress A Rat? Harass It With A Robot
Stress Test Takanishi Lab/Waseda UniversityA new robotic rat helps create models of depression in lab rats. Rats and mice are often instrumental in testing new drug treatments before they reach the clinical use phase. To create the appropriate conditions to test a drug for depression, though, researchers need to induce a model of depression in the test subject. In order to create a workable model of a human mental disorder like depression, anxiety or schizophrenia, rats are often genetically manipulated or have their nerve system surgically altered. Sometimes they are forced to swim for long periods of time. Now, researchers at Waseda University in Tokyo have created a new method: Let a robotic rat terrorize the rats into depression. WR-3, a robotic rat designed to interact with lab rats, bugs the rats until they exhibit signs of depression, signaled by a lack of activity -- when rats are depressed,...