“How is it that rats are
often used for studies and then someone thinks the conclusions translate to
humans?” Good question. First, studies have shown that rat brains are more like
human brains than one might think. Neuroscientists face a multitude of
challenges trying to better understand the human brain. Because of model
organisms such as the rat, researchers are able to discover information that
might not otherwise be known because some experiments would be impossible to do
on humans. What are some of the similarities? For starters a recent paper
published in the journal Frontiers in Neural Circuits by Jared Smith and Kevin
Alloway indicated the discovery of a parallel between the motor cortices of
rats and humans that signifies a greater relevance of the rat model to studies
of the human brain than scientists had previously known. For another, rat and human brains have more than
30 identical peptides. Peptides are molecules consisting of two or more amino
acids that impact mood; some are hormones, others are neurotransmitters, and
some are a combination of both. Therefore, depending on the topic under
research, what happens in the rat brain may be very similar to what goes on in
the human brain. Maybe being called a rat
isn’t so far off base after all . . .
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