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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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(rats squeeking)
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(Panksepp) 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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(rats squeeking)
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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.
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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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(Panksepp) They are following my hand
because it has brought them great joy.
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(chuckles)
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Oh, he just bit me. (laughs)
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. (chuckles)
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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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(music)
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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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(music)
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Critics argue that our complex brains
are too different to rats' brains.
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And 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 is valuable for understanding humans
and a 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 for
rights to the most pivotal item in view.
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It's a new way of treating depression:
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The antidepressant doesn't treat sadness
but instead promotes hapiness.
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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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(Panksepp) Rat laughter makes you 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.
