Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id HAA03293 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Fri, 26 Jan 2001 07:49:10 GMT Message-ID: <A4400389479FD3118C9400508B0FF230010D1A7F@DELTA.newhouse.akzonobel.nl> From: "Gatherer, D. (Derek)" <D.Gatherer@organon.nhe.akzonobel.nl> To: "'memetics@mmu.ac.uk'" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Subject: RE: MIT research reports rats dream of mazes Date: Fri, 26 Jan 2001 08:36:32 +0100 X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.5.2650.21) Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
LdB:
Studies must have been done on whether the progeny of maze-running
champions have inherited maze-knowledge or -running skill. Does anybody here
know if this is the case?
Derek:
That would be _highly_ unlikely - but testable, and therefore a great idea.
A great idea from the point of view of memetics, that is, since we have a
hypothesis (ie. rats teach their children, or in some weaker way have
cultural transmission by imitation or whatever) which we think it is
worthwhile to test. Neurobiologists however would be less likely to view
this as worth doing, as they would see it as so extremely unlikely in view
of everything we know over the 100 or so years that people have been doing
these kind of experiments.
Actually, now I think about it, it might not be such a clean experiment
after all, as a genetically clever rat might have genetically clever pups
who would also grow up into champion maze runners. Rats are usually
separated from their mothers as soon as they are weaned. This is very
important as the young males will soon start fighting each other when they
reach sexual maturity, which is very shortly after weaning. From that point
on, males are kept in isolation and females in group cages of varying sizes.
Under normal circumstances, a rat would never see another rat running the
maze, nor would it be exposed subsequently to a rat that had run a maze.
How would you design the experiment in order to give the rats opportunity to
learn, and how would you exclude the fact that you might just be performing
a selective breeding experiment for clever rats????
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