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tom:
Sure is. 183 or 483. Can't recall which.
The researcher in these photos studies place cells in the rat hippocampus, which basically encode where the rat is situated in a particular environment. Accordingly (and this is the part you may find unnerving), rats under study have a number of small sensitive electrodes embedded there to record the activities of the cells. The purple EEG machinery behind the rat amplifies and modulates the signals from the electrodes for recording and analysis.
Researchers who do this sort of in vivo recording are bound by strict ethical guidelines which mandate humane treatment of the animals. The rats are anesthetized when the electrodes are implanted, of course. And, believe it or not, even with the electrodes in place the rat is perfectly happy to go on and do normal ratty things, which is why the research works at all. Nevertheless, the center where this research takes place and the people who work there have to remain cautious about militant animal rights activists (even in Pittsburgh!), which is why I've decided not to show this researcher's face.
I don't know what happened to this rat specifically, in any case. |
