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Do Rats Have Emotions? | Horizon: The Science of Laughter | BBC Earth Science

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    When this man started his career,
    his ideas were considered very avantgarde.
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    Today however, he has a global reputation
    as one of the world's top neurobiologists.
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    And all because, he discovered
    that he could hear rats squeek.
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    You're hearing the squeeking
    through the ultrasound detector.
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    If we didn't have these detectors on,
    you would not be hearing anything.
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    Once he'd heard the squeeks,
    Panksepp wanted to discover their meaning.
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    One morning I woke up and said:
    What if that is laughter?
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    And I said, then you should
    be able to tickle animals.
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    And we tickled the first rat
    and it chirped like crazy.
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    The second rat, and actually every rat
    except really neurotic ones, have chirped.
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    The casual observer might think,
    that the rats aren't laughing at all.
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    That their tiny chirps are cries for help.
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    But not only are the vocalisations
    the same as noises made in play,
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    the rats' behaviour speaks for itself.
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    They are following my hand because
    this hand has brought them great joy.
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    Oh, he just bit me!
    But he didn't hurt me.
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    It's their way of saying:
    'C'mon let's play'.
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    I love rats.
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    They are such fun animals,
    so smart and so emotional.
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    As far as we can tell,
    we have the same basic emotions as rats.
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    Panksepp's idea, that rats have emotions,
    did not endear him to his colleagues.
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    People say, I'm giving human qualities
    to animals, it's anthropomorphism.
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    But I have not been doing that at all,
    I am doing zoomorphism.
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    I am trying to understand the animal mind,
    as a way to illuminate the human mind.
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    Critics argue that our complex brains
    are so different to rats' brains,
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    that any comparison is meaningless.
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    In reality, emotions occur
    in the evolutionary ancient brain.
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    The part we share with all mammals.
    Including rats.
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    Animals that were bred for high laughter
    are resistant to depression.
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    Meaning they have chemistries
    protecting them from life's ups and downs.
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    Animals that were bred for low laughter
    are susceptible to depression.
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    If we understand animal emotions
    at the fundamental instinctual level,
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    We will have a science
    of human basic emotions.
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    That's very valuable
    for understanding ourselves,
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    and having a more
    sophisticated biological psychiatry.
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    Panksepp's idea was
    to use the rats' laughter,
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    to find which area in the acient brain
    is involved in happiness.
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    And to then identify
    the responsible neurochemistry.
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    With his approach, a group from NU
    identified a happiness neurotransmitter.
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    They call it GLX-13.
    Catchy.
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    And they've also developed a drug
    to stimulate its production.
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    In 2013, they began human clinical trials.
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    The results were so impressive that
    2 years later a drugs company bought it.
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    For 560 million dollars.
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    Surprisingly, $560 million isn't bad
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    for buying the rights
    to the most powerful item on the horizon.
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    It's a new way of treating depression:
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    Instead of reducing sadness,
    the andtidepressant promotes happiness.
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    It's an approach that shows great promise.
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    And all this from tickling rats!
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    Rat laughter forces you to think
    about the molecules of social joy.
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    I am pleased and surprised in retrospect,
    that we got that far.
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    That's the wonderful thing about science:
    there's always surprises.
Title:
Do Rats Have Emotions? | Horizon: The Science of Laughter | BBC Earth Science
Description:

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Video Language:
English
Duration:
05:21

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