wraggster
October 28th, 2015, 20:33
http://o.aolcdn.com/dims-shared/dims3/GLOB/crop/4368x2667+0+244/resize/1200x733!/format/jpg/quality/85/http://hss-prod.hss.aol.com/hss/storage/adam/c392f5998d186c34adfd03d199e2961f/108176363.jpeg (http://www.engadget.com/2015/10/27/vr-simulator-rodents/)A group of scientists from Janelia Research Campus (https://www.janelia.org/publication/natural-whisker-guided-behavior-head-fixed-mice-tactile-virtual-reality) have built their lab mice some sort of an Oculus Rift (http://www.engadget.com/2015/10/26/oculus-rift-teddy-bear-adawarp/) of their own. Okay, so it's not a tiny VR headset for rodents -- though that would have been amusing to see -- but a simulator with walls that touch the mouse's whiskers on either side. This makes the mouse think it's moving through a maze, when it's really just running on a small spherical treadmill. The researchers created the system not because the lab mice needed entertainment: they built it so they can observe how a mammal's brain reacts to injury, learns how to find routes and forms memories. They believe that by having a better grasp of memory formation, we can also understand diseases that cause memory loss (like Alzheimer's (http://www.engadget.com/2015/05/11/forget-me-knot-game/)) a lot better.
http://www.engadget.com/2015/10/27/vr-simulator-rodents/
http://www.engadget.com/2015/10/27/vr-simulator-rodents/