The bumper sticker reads “My rat is smarter than YOU.” Transgenically-enhanced Hobbie-J –- named after a clever rat in a Chinese cartoon book – may not be smarter than you, but she appears to be smarter than the smartest known breeds of rat.
According to Science Daily, Hobbie-J was able to remember novel objects, such as a toy she played with, three times longer than the average Long Evans female rat, the smartest rat strain. Hobbie-J was also better at remembering which path she last traveled to find a chocolate treat.
Researchers from the Medical College of Georgia and East China Normal University developed Hobbie-J ‘s superior brainpower by transgenic over-expression of the NR2B gene, which in turn increased communication between NMDA receptor sites maybe a hundred milliseconds longer than normal, just enough to enhance learning and memory. NMDA receptors (and their NR2B subunits) are the controlling molecular structures for synaptic plasticity and memory.
“This adds to the notion that NR2B is a universal switch for memory formation,” says Dr. Joe Z. Tsien, co-director of the MCG Brain & Behavior Discovery Institute and co-corresponding author with Dr. Xiaohua Cao of a paper called “Genetic Enhancement of Memory” published recently in PLoS One.
Full Article and some cute pictures of a very clever rat over at HPlus Magazine
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That was a great video. Being in the business of, amongst other things, making medical animations, I know how difficult it is to express complex molecular and subcellular concepts in an understandable way. And I sort of understood at least half of that! Nice article as well, there’s hope for me yet.
This video just shows you how important a decent diet is to helping us function properly. So get the lentils and the low fat proteins down you!