Kelly Lambert found something very interesting recently, namely, that rats would rather drive than walk. I'm talking about real rats here, not that guy who stole your parking spot at the Bi-So-Lo the other day.
Kelly is a professor and neuroscientist down at the University of Richmond. She rigged up tiny cars to see if rodents could get behind the wheel and scoot on down the road.
“Unexpectedly, we found that the rats had an intense motivation for their driving training, often jumping into the car and revving the ‘lever engine’ before their vehicle hit the road,” Lambert wrote in an essay last week.
Of course, this wasn't some carnival attraction she was working on. Dr. Lambert is exploring how animals relate to their environments, how we develop cognition study aims to explore the relationship between animals and their environments, how their cognition develops, and how they process new skills. The rat-driving research went viral in 2022 and even wound up featured in a Netflix documentary.
Dr. Lambert says the joy the rats felt at driving could be partially attributed to the Pavlovian response of getting a little rat treat (a Froot Loop) for their stint behind the wheel, but also, she noticed that even without their Loop, the rodents just loved to drive for the sheer thrill of it all.
“Rather than pushing buttons for instant rewards, they remind us that planning, anticipating and enjoying the ride may be key to a healthy brain,” she wrote.
I keep hearing that teenagers are not in a particular hurry to learn to drive these days, and frankly, I don't blame them. A couple of miles around the Beltway is enough to make me want to call a cab.
Maybe they would send a tiny car with a rat driving.
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