NT researchers now elctrocuting rats to measure empathy

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http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/article ... =pmcentrez

Okay, exacly what's really being measured here? How much empathy rats have when another rat is zapped or how much empathy reserchers have towards other living things when zapping rats . There is some evidence to suggest that pyschopathic behavior sometimes involves progressive levels of harm to animals in childhood and adolescence. I hope these guys grow out of this pattern of behavior and find something more useful to do.

The idea of this upsets me.


Meme.

One indicator of the sociopathy of the individuals involved is the domain (.gov) of the URL posted.

NT researchers now electrocuting rats to measure empathy

lol

This is very valuable research. Mice will actually starve themselves for a couple of days if they learn that pulling a lever to provide food will electrocute its friend. A chimpanzee in a similar experiment actually starved itself for 14 days for the same reason. The evolutionary origin of empathy and its study is valuable and helps us better understand where we came from and where we're going.

I would encourage you to read this -- Wild Justice: The Moral Lives of Animals by Mark Bekoff

Poor little rats.

I have worked with experimental mice before. This kind of research is not as bad as it sounds and there are extremely stringent guidelines for animal experiments in place especially in the US and EU.

Maybe over the top.^

But for Bipolar Disorder:

There was a paradigm that served useful for modeling bipolar disorder: A scientists would pinch the tail or apply shock to the feet of rats under certain conditions, i.e when animal entered into a certain area of the cage, then given this treatment.

After a while the rat would convulse only when under the exact same conditions, as being in the same location, but without this "treatment."

Progressively, the rat would convulse , when not in the same location (or conditions), i.e. spontaneously convulse.

It's a non- homologous model because bipolar humans are not subject to physical pain, but emotional pain. Some trauma here and there, and the person experiences 'this' as the trigger, but later it takes a life of its own, regardless of the conditions. This induces the spontaneous rapid cycling you see in bipolar.

Give the rat an anticonvulsant or a bipolar patient an anticonvulsant and this is controlled.

The rat is not as "developed" as a human so it's an imperfect crossover when comparing physical pain to emotional pain.

This is how they understood the condition and thus making a treatment with anti convulsants with Bipolar Disorder.

I thought my predilections regarding animal testing were aspergian, but now see them as distinct of AS

That's really sad. but the research is useful, at least.

Yeah look how healthy we are all becoming from this 'important research'

All our illnesses are decreasing, oh wait....

"Vivisection is an industry. Those sufficiently interested or concerned about animal experimentation, animal research, or animal trials (all euphemisms for vivisection) should be mindful of the gigantic financial enterprises operating under its name, on the premise that it is bona-fide. These businesses depend for their very survival on continued public acceptance of the belief that vivisection is authentic."
- Bette Overel

I have no regrets over the several hundred mice and mouse pups that I have sacrificed for research at a University into serious medical problems (mainly cancer). It's true that a lot of mice are sacrificed to produce products that profit a company, and perhaps there is some room for debate on exactly where we draw the line, but I can guarantee you that animal research guidelines are very stringent in the US and EU. I have lost count of the number of times I have been called early on the morning on a weekend to be told by the vet that I need to go to work and treat a mouse because it has some mild abrasion on its ear from fighting other mice, or something similar.

We treat mice far better than mice treat mice. You should see how the mother's cannibalize the young, or how the males fight one another to the death then cannibalize each others corpses, etc.

I guess thats why they call it a rat race

How are cancer rates going at the moment?

I want to electrocute those researchers. I don't have much empathy twoards other people, but when people hurt animals like this, I want to bash their heads in. May they rot in Hell.

How is it useful exactly??

The findings of this study: Scientists have very little empathy for rats.

Abstract from paper from study: "Our findings show that there is no correlation between voltage applied a rat and our giving a crap."

When I was a kid around 14 my friends and I use to do experiments with roadkill and M-80's to see how far we can get them to blow up and how much of a mess we could make of them. If he could find a mole hole or find a mole nest under boards we would set up we would blow them up too. Rats are vermin that destroy property and spread disease. As far as I am concerned they don't test on enough of them. As long as they leave cats, dogs, and apes alone they can test rats all day long.