When you’re feeling stressed, most of us would probably take a break and do something we consider relaxing. There are many forms of relaxation, but did you know that learning a new skill could potentially be relaxing? Apparently that’s what scientists seem to believe based on a recent experiment they conducted with rats.
No, before you get squeamish, no brains were dissected. Instead, researchers over at the University of Richmond actually managed to teach rats how to drive tiny cars in which they could then “drive” themselves to collect their own food. What was interesting was that during the process of teaching rats how to drive, the researchers found that by learning new skills, it relaxed the rats.
This was based on measuring the hormone levels of the rats: corticosterone, which is a marker of stress, and dehydroepiandrosterone, which is used to counteract stress. Over the course of learning how to drive, the ratio of dehydroepiandrosterone to corticosterone in the rats’ feces increased, suggesting that the rats grew less stressed over time.
According to one of the researchers, Kelly Lambert, she likened it to the same kind of satisfaction that we as humans get when we perfect a new skill. This is an interesting discovery as Lambert believes that it shows how much smarter rats are than what people think them to be. “I do believe that rats are smarter than most people perceive them to be, and that most animals are smarter in unique ways than we think.”
Filed in . Read more about Science. Source: newscientist