Scientists from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) have proven that mice are creative: They can imagine walking somewhere or carrying objects to a specific location. The research was published in the journal Science.
As in humans, when rats are introduced to new places and objects, certain neural connections are activated in the hippocampus, the area of the brain responsible for spatial memory. This area stores “world maps” and deals with remembering past events and imagining future scenarios. It was previously unknown whether animals can specifically control this hippocampal function.
Over several years, the study authors developed a “brain-machine” system that would allow real-time measurement of neural activity in the brains of mice. In the final experiment, the mouse was placed in a setup: The animal ran along a moving ball surrounded by a dome. An image of a virtual space filled with various objects was projected onto the walls of the dome. Using this mechanism and the brain-machine interface, scientists created a “thought dictionary” that allowed them to decipher the mouse’s brain signals. He collected descriptions of the neural activity that occurs when the mouse encounters objects and places in virtual reality. Animals were rewarded with water when they reached certain places in the virtual space or interacted with objects within it (to which they had limited access).
The researchers then turned off the treadmill. As a result, the animal could only move with the help of its own thoughts. In this case, the activity of the rat’s hippocampus corresponded to the activity observed during movement. This means that the animal usually imagines reaching a certain place where it receives a reward. When the mouse was “immobilized” at a specific location in virtual reality, it imagined itself moving an object toward a target in the VR space, controlling the activity of its hippocampus. The animals were able to maintain hippocampal activity by holding their thoughts in a specific location for several seconds; This is a similar period of time when people relive past events or imagine new scenarios.
“The mouse can actually activate representations of places in the environment without going there. Even if its physical body is stationary, its spatial thoughts can travel far away,” explained Chongxi Lai, first author of the paper.
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