Squeak, memory

Through memory we become men. Or do we? Considering that the humble lab rat now seems to also have a knack for remembering things, Marcel Proust of Remembrance of Things Past fame and his species are no longer alone.

Through memory we become men. Or do we? Considering that the humble lab rat now seems to also have a knack for remembering things, Marcel Proust of Remembrance of Things Past fame and his species are no longer alone. Researchers at MIT have found out that rats are not only pretty good at running through a maze — that was known already — but that they become better at running through a particular maze every time because they pause and reflect on the path before them. Reflection, in this case, means remembering and to remember, the mighty rat pauses. So what brilliant inference do the MITecchies make of this? That replaying actions in reverse is part of a neural editing process in humans too.

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For those who misplace their keys regularly, this may sound obvious. But what the research really sheds light on is the act of pausing — a fancy way of describing looking into the horizon and switching off the mental lights. And that's exactly where the whitecoats have come to the rescue of daydreamers: your mental lights are actually not switched off at all. In rats, individual neurons — 'place cells' — in the hippocampus area of the brain (where memory is 'stored' and remembering is 'done') become active in reverse order when the rat pauses to think and remember.

So it seems that rats have their use for men — providing that much needed excuse to blink out, whether with the spouse or at work. For all that we do then is jog our precious place cells and keep our hippocampus in tiptop shape.