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News tagged with rats

What do animals 'know'? More than you may think

(PhysOrg.com) -- Rats use their knowledge to make decisions when faced with ambiguous situations, UCLA psychologists report.

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Dec 09, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (9) | comments 28 | with audio podcast

Helping your fellow rat: Rodents show empathy-driven behavior

The first evidence of empathy-driven helping behavior in rodents has been observed in laboratory rats that repeatedly free companions from a restraint, according to a new study by University of Chicago neuroscientists.

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Dec 08, 2011 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (8) | comments 8 | with audio podcast

Mole rat dental structure similar to a shark

(PhysOrg.com) -- Sharks are capable of continually growing new teeth. As the teeth age, they fall out and new ones move forward similar to that of a tooth conveyor belt. Humans, and most mammals, on the other ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Oct 11, 2011 | popularity 4 / 5 (4) | comments 0 | with audio podcast report

Rebooting the brain helps stop the ring of tinnitus in rats

(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers were able to eliminate tinnitus in a group of rats by stimulating a nerve in the neck while simultaneously playing a variety of sound tones over an extended period of time, says a study published ...

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

created Jan 12, 2011 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (20) | comments 28 | with audio podcast

Neuroscience of instinct: How animals overcome fear to obtain food (w/ Video)

(PhysOrg.com) -- When crossing a street, we look to the left and right for cars and stay put on the sidewalk if we see a car close enough and traveling fast enough to hit us before we're able to reach the ...

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

created Nov 29, 2010 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (9) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

Chili peppers come with blood pressure benefits

For those with high blood pressure, chili peppers might be just what the doctor ordered, according to a study reported in the August issue of Cell Metabolism. While the active ingredient that gives the peppers their heat - ...

Medicine & Health / Medical research

created Aug 03, 2010 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (12) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

New stroke therapy successful in rats

People with impaired mobility after a stroke soon may have a therapy that restores limb function long after the injury, if a supplemental protein works as well in humans as it does in paralyzed rats.

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

created Jan 12, 2010 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

Why newborn babies can't walk

(PhysOrg.com) -- The first steps of an infant is a real milestone in the development of all mammals including humans, but little is known about why some animals can walk soon after birth, while others need ...

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

created Dec 18, 2009 | popularity 4.2 / 5 (13) | comments 16 weblog

To make memories, new neurons must erase older ones

Short-term memory may depend in a surprising way on the ability of newly formed neurons to erase older connections. That's the conclusion of a report in the November 13th issue of the journal Cell that provid ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Nov 12, 2009 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (8) | comments 0

Stem cells restore mobility in neck-injured rats (w/ Video)

(PhysOrg.com) -- The first human embryonic stem cell treatment approved by the FDA for human testing has been shown to restore limb function in rats with neck spinal cord injuries - a finding that could expand the clinical ...

Medicine & Health / Medical research

created Nov 10, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (9) | comments 1

Use of cannabinoids could help post-traumatic stress disorder patients

Use of cannabinoids (marijuana) could assist in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder patients. This is exposed in a recent study carried out at the Learning and Memory Lab in the University of Haifa's Department ...

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

created Nov 04, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (7) | comments 1

Scientists discover gene that 'cancer-proofs' rodent's cells

(PhysOrg.com) -- Despite a 30-year lifespan that gives ample time for cells to grow cancerous, a small rodent species called a naked mole rat has never been found with tumors of any kind—and now biologists ...

Biology / Biotechnology

created Oct 26, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (47) | comments 13

Changes in brain chemicals mark shifts in infant learning

When do you first leave the nest? Early in development infants of many species experience important transitions—such as learning when to leave the protective presence of their mother to start exploring the wider world. Neuroscientists ...

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

created Oct 26, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0

Smart rat 'Hobbie-J' produced by over-expressing a gene that helps brain cells communicate

Over-expressing a gene that lets brain cells communicate just a fraction of a second longer makes a smarter rat, report researchers from the Medical College of Georgia and East China Normal University.

Biology / Biotechnology

created Oct 19, 2009 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (15) | comments 5

Adolescent alcohol expsoure may lead to long-term risky decision making

(PhysOrg.com) -- Picture this. A bunch of adolescent rats walk into a bar and start consuming Jell-O shots. Lots of them.

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

created Sep 21, 2009 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (2) | comments 3

Rat

50 species

Stenomys Thomas, 1910

Rats are various medium-sized, long-tailed rodents of the superfamily Muroidea. "True rats" are members of the genus Rattus, the most important of which to humans are the black rat, Rattus rattus, and the brown rat, Rattus norvegicus. Many members of other rodent genera and families are also called rats and share many characteristics with true rats.

Rats are typically distinguished from mice by their size; rats are generally large muroid rodents, while mice are generally small muroid rodents. The muroid family is very large and complex, and the common terms rat and mouse are not taxonomically specific. Generally, when someone discovers a large muroid, its common name includes the term rat, while if it is small, the name includes the term mouse - scientifically, the terms are not confined to members of the Rattus and Mus genera. Compare the taxonomic classification of the Pack rat and Cotton mouse.

For more information about Rat, read the full article at Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.

Related topics: brain , memory , neurons , hippocampus