Rat Tickling
August 10, 2021 3:20 PM Subscribe
Scientist Tickle Rats for Science (SLNYT).
"It’s generally not a good time to be a rodent in Australia. On farms across the country, mice are being poisoned and chased out of fields by desperate farmers as the country suffers one of the worst mouse plagues in living memory.
But at one lab in Canberra, the nation’s capital, a select group of lab rats has had quite a different experience. Researchers have tickled them every day for a month to see if it will improve their emotional well-being, and perhaps make them better models for research."
And you too can become a certified rat tickler.
"It’s generally not a good time to be a rodent in Australia. On farms across the country, mice are being poisoned and chased out of fields by desperate farmers as the country suffers one of the worst mouse plagues in living memory.
But at one lab in Canberra, the nation’s capital, a select group of lab rats has had quite a different experience. Researchers have tickled them every day for a month to see if it will improve their emotional well-being, and perhaps make them better models for research."
And you too can become a certified rat tickler.
My rats start bruxing and boggling whenever a tickle seems imminent.
posted by pipeski at 5:01 PM on August 10, 2021 [5 favorites]
posted by pipeski at 5:01 PM on August 10, 2021 [5 favorites]
Do they giggle?!?!?!?!
posted by Tandem Affinity at 5:42 PM on August 10, 2021
posted by Tandem Affinity at 5:42 PM on August 10, 2021
Oh, this is a different post. (It's weird science week, bartleby.)
posted by mollweide at 5:47 PM on August 10, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by mollweide at 5:47 PM on August 10, 2021 [2 favorites]
Tandem Affinity: yes! It’s just too high pitched for us to hear. But it can be pitched down so we can.
posted by [insert clever name here] at 8:43 PM on August 10, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by [insert clever name here] at 8:43 PM on August 10, 2021 [1 favorite]
I'm glad they're tickling them for science and not for more prurient reasons.
posted by hippybear at 9:03 PM on August 10, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by hippybear at 9:03 PM on August 10, 2021 [1 favorite]
But it can be pitched down so we can.
Like, OMG!! Here!
posted by hippybear at 9:13 PM on August 10, 2021 [2 favorites]
Like, OMG!! Here!
posted by hippybear at 9:13 PM on August 10, 2021 [2 favorites]
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-06/act-researchers-tickle-rats-to-improve-wellbeing-in-captivity/100355632 here's an alternative version of this story that isn't NYT. :) (Australian ABC)
posted by freethefeet at 10:08 PM on August 10, 2021
posted by freethefeet at 10:08 PM on August 10, 2021
Okay, first mouse sperm on a postcard, now this. Is metafilter the new ignobel selection committee?
posted by DreamerFi at 2:13 AM on August 11, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by DreamerFi at 2:13 AM on August 11, 2021 [1 favorite]
The hot gossip around the watercooler is that this research has got this year's biology Ig-Noble award pretty much in the bag.
posted by Eleven at 4:46 AM on August 11, 2021
posted by Eleven at 4:46 AM on August 11, 2021
I'm not a fan of these stories. Of course, people love to think about lab rats being gently tickled by researchers - much more fun than thinking about the horror of the daily lives of most of these animals - and the horror that these specific rats will probably go through once they move on from being tickled to having the researchers watch them to see how long they will keep swimming to keep themselves from drowning before they give up from exhaustion (yes, that's a real experiment - it's for seeing how well antidepressants work - never mind that many of these drugs don't work the same way in humans that they do in rats).
I'm not arguing (at least not right now) that animal experiments are always wrong - but for the most part, no real thought is given to the ethics of conducting these experiments and whether the research is ultimately worth the cost (I am aware that there are committees that OK these experiments on ethical grounds - I do not trust them to really look out for the rats). Anyone who questions this is painted as sentimental and nuts. The tickling stories are a great way to distract us from the horrors. And everyone loves to hear about rats being tickled. How sentimental is that?
posted by FencingGal at 7:00 AM on August 11, 2021 [1 favorite]
I'm not arguing (at least not right now) that animal experiments are always wrong - but for the most part, no real thought is given to the ethics of conducting these experiments and whether the research is ultimately worth the cost (I am aware that there are committees that OK these experiments on ethical grounds - I do not trust them to really look out for the rats). Anyone who questions this is painted as sentimental and nuts. The tickling stories are a great way to distract us from the horrors. And everyone loves to hear about rats being tickled. How sentimental is that?
posted by FencingGal at 7:00 AM on August 11, 2021 [1 favorite]
I'm not arguing (at least not right now) that animal experiments are always wrong - but for the most part, no real thought is given to the ethics of conducting these experiments and whether the research is ultimately worth the cost
Have... have you ever spoken to a researcher who does animal behavior work in your life on this subject? On both practical* and ethical grounds, every person I have ever worked with thinks pretty deeply about this. It is a standard thing that comes up for discussion for each individual person every two years and every time someone enters or leaves a lab, and you need to explicitly articulate these ideas for every single experiment you conduct and every procedure you consider doing.
What the hell do you mean, no real thought?!
*(If you can do an experiment without using animal subjects, it is way cheaper and way less hassle to do so basically 100% of the time.)
posted by sciatrix at 7:19 AM on August 11, 2021 [7 favorites]
Have... have you ever spoken to a researcher who does animal behavior work in your life on this subject? On both practical* and ethical grounds, every person I have ever worked with thinks pretty deeply about this. It is a standard thing that comes up for discussion for each individual person every two years and every time someone enters or leaves a lab, and you need to explicitly articulate these ideas for every single experiment you conduct and every procedure you consider doing.
What the hell do you mean, no real thought?!
*(If you can do an experiment without using animal subjects, it is way cheaper and way less hassle to do so basically 100% of the time.)
posted by sciatrix at 7:19 AM on August 11, 2021 [7 favorites]
Have... have you ever spoken to a researcher who does animal behavior work in your life on this subject?
I read animal research–based papers for a living.
posted by FencingGal at 7:26 AM on August 11, 2021
I read animal research–based papers for a living.
posted by FencingGal at 7:26 AM on August 11, 2021
Have... have you ever spoken to a researcher who does animal behavior work in your life on this subject?
I've also had animal researchers direct me to supposedly hilarious videos of rats struggling to walk in some of these experiments. I'm fine with you saying I'm wrong, but maybe without the ad hominem element.
posted by FencingGal at 7:30 AM on August 11, 2021 [1 favorite]
I've also had animal researchers direct me to supposedly hilarious videos of rats struggling to walk in some of these experiments. I'm fine with you saying I'm wrong, but maybe without the ad hominem element.
posted by FencingGal at 7:30 AM on August 11, 2021 [1 favorite]
Mod note: Hi there, friendly reminder that it's a big world and two things can be true at once, it can be true that some researchers or some corners of the research community are conscientious while others are callous, both of you can talk about your experience of these things without generalizing beyond that experience and it's not a contradiction. But also -- let's avoid getting sidetracked into broad questions whether animal research is ok, and instead keep the focus on the specific linked research.
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 8:53 AM on August 11, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 8:53 AM on August 11, 2021 [3 favorites]
I've tickled rats many times, and they usually enjoy it. I didn't know I was doing a science.
posted by mmoncur at 4:00 PM on August 11, 2021
posted by mmoncur at 4:00 PM on August 11, 2021
I trained a rat for an Animal Learning psychology course during my undergrad. It led to me being the owner of about 7 other rats over the subsequent years as I adopted rats used in the course by other students. They really are wonderful pets and I'd probably still be having them as pets but unfortunately I developed a pretty severe allergy to them (and apparently most people do).
However, the tickling and stimulation will absolutely interfere with their learning and possibly retard the research being done with them. In my case, the extra half hour of play with my first rat, both before and after its Skinner-box time, meant I had to come in on weekends, spring break and do about 2 extra weeks of training to get my rat to learn what my classmates' rats, which were never even touched, had learned. My rat learned lots of other things, like how to poop and have it fall into my lab coat breast pocket and how to tickle me by sticking its nose in my ear and such, and was probably a more ecologically accurate model of animal learning but the deprived rats were far more focused on the assigned task.
posted by srboisvert at 6:45 AM on August 12, 2021 [1 favorite]
However, the tickling and stimulation will absolutely interfere with their learning and possibly retard the research being done with them. In my case, the extra half hour of play with my first rat, both before and after its Skinner-box time, meant I had to come in on weekends, spring break and do about 2 extra weeks of training to get my rat to learn what my classmates' rats, which were never even touched, had learned. My rat learned lots of other things, like how to poop and have it fall into my lab coat breast pocket and how to tickle me by sticking its nose in my ear and such, and was probably a more ecologically accurate model of animal learning but the deprived rats were far more focused on the assigned task.
posted by srboisvert at 6:45 AM on August 12, 2021 [1 favorite]
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