Inscribed coffins, jars of organs, and other grave goodies were recovered.

Kelly Lambert: We crafted our first rodent car from a plastic cereal container. After trial and error, my colleagues and I found that rats could learn to drive forward by grasping a small wire that acted like a gas pedal. Before long, they were steering with surprising precision to reach a Froot Loop treat. As expected, rats housed in enriched environments – complete with toys, space and companions – learned to drive faster than those in standard cages. This finding supported the idea that complex environments enhance neuroplasticity: the brain’s ability to change across the lifespan in response to environmental demands. After we published our research, the story of driving rats went viral in the media. The project continues in my lab with new, improved rat-operated vehicles, or ROVs, designed by robotics professor John McManus and his students. These upgraded electrical ROVs – featuring rat-proof wiring, indestructible tires and ergonomic driving levers – are akin to a rodent version of Tesla’s Cybertruck. As a neuroscientist who advocates for housing and testing laboratory animals in natural habitats, I’ve found it amusing to see how far we’ve strayed from my lab practices with this project. Rats typically prefer dirt, sticks and rocks over plastic objects. Now, we had them driving cars. But humans didn’t evolve to drive either. Although our ancient ancestors didn’t have cars, they had flexible brains that enabled them to acquire new skills – fire, language, stone tools and agriculture. And some time after the invention of the wheel, humans made cars. Although cars made for rats are far from anything they would encounter in the wild, we believed that driving represented an interesting way to study how rodents acquire new skills. Unexpectedly, we found that the rats had an intense motivation for their driving training, often jumping into the car and revving the “lever engine” before their vehicle hit the road. Why was that? The new destination of joy Concepts from introductory psychology textbooks took on a new, hands-on dimension in our rodent driving laboratory. Building on foundational learning approaches such as operant conditioning, which reinforces targeted behavior through strategic incentives, we trained the rats step-by-step in their driver’s ed programs. Initially, they learned basic movements, such as climbing into the car and pressing a lever. But with practice, these simple actions evolved into more complex behaviors, such as steering the car toward a specific destination. The rats also taught me something profound one morning during the pandemic. It was the summer of 2020, a period marked by emotional isolation for almost everyone on the planet, even laboratory rats. When I walked into the lab, I noticed something unusual: The three driving-trained rats eagerly ran to the side of the cage, jumping up like my dog does when asked if he wants to take a walk. Had the rats always done this and I just hadn’t noticed? Were they just eager for a Froot Loop, or anticipating the drive itself? Whatever the case, they appeared to be feeling something positive – perhaps excitement and anticipation. Behaviors associated with positive experiences are associated with joy in humans, but what about rats? Was I seeing something akin to joy in a rat? Maybe so, considering that neuroscience research is increasingly suggesting that joy and positive emotions play a critical role in the health of both human and nonhuman animals. With that, my team and I shifted focus from topics such as how chronic stress influences brains to how positive events – and anticipation for these events – shape neural functions. Working with postdoctoral fellow Kitty Hartvigsen, I designed a new protocol that used waiting periods to ramp up anticipation before a positive event. Bringing Pavlovian conditioning into the mix, rats had to wait 15 minutes after a Lego block was placed in their cage before they received a Froot Loop. They also had to wait in their transport cage for a few minutes before entering Rat Park, their play area. We also added challenges, such as making them shell sunflower seeds before eating. This became our Wait For It research program. We dubbed this new line of study UPERs – unpredictable positive experience responses – where rats were trained to wait for rewards. In contrast, control rats received their rewards immediately. After about a month of training, we expose the rats to different tests to determine how waiting for positive experiences affects how they learn and behave. We’re currently peering into their brains to map the neural footprint of extended positive experiences. Preliminary results suggest that rats required to wait for their rewards show signs of shifting from a pessimistic cognitive style to an optimistic one in a test designed to measure rodent optimism. They performed better on cognitive tasks and were bolder in their problem-solving strategies. We linked this program to our lab’s broader interest in behaviorceuticals, a term I coined to suggest that experiences can alter brain chemistry similarly to pharmaceuticals. This research provides further support of how anticipation can reinforce behavior. Previous work with lab rats has shown that rats pressing a bar for cocaine – a stimulant that increases dopamine activation – already experience a surge of dopamine as they anticipate a dose of cocaine. The tale of rat tails It wasn’t just the effects of anticipation on rat behavior that caught our attention. One day, a student noticed something strange: One of the rats in the group trained to expect positive experiences had its tail straight up with a crook at the end, resembling the handle of an old-fashioned umbrella. I had never seen this in my decades of working with rats. Reviewing the video footage, we found that the rats trained to anticipate positive experiences were more likely to hold their tails high than untrained rats. But what, exactly, did this mean? Curious, I posted a picture of the behavior on social media. Fellow neuroscientists identified this as a gentler form of what’s called Straub tail, typically seen in rats given the opioid morphine. This S-shaped curl is also linked to dopamine. When dopamine is blocked, the Straub tail behavior subsides. Natural forms of opiates and dopamine – key players in brain pathways that diminish pain and enhance reward – seem to be telltale ingredients of the elevated tails in our anticipation training program. Observing tail posture in rats adds a new layer to our understanding of rat emotional expression, reminding us that emotions are expressed throughout the entire body. While we can’t directly ask rats whether they like to drive, we devised a behavioral test to assess their motivation to drive. This time, instead of only giving rats the option of driving to the Froot Loop Tree, they could also make a shorter journey on foot – or paw, in this case. Surprisingly, two of the three rats chose to take the less efficient path of turning away from the reward and running to the car to drive to their Froot Loop destination. This response suggests that the rats enjoy both the journey and the rewarding destination. Rat lessons on enjoying the journey We’re not the only team investigating positive emotions in animals. Neuroscientist Jaak Panksepp famously tickled rats, demonstrating their capacity for joy. Research has also shown that desirable low-stress rat environments retune their brains’ reward circuits, such as the nucleus accumbens. When animals are housed in their favored environments, the area of the nucleus accumbens that responds to appetitive experiences expands. Alternatively, when rats are housed in stressful contexts, the fear-generating zones of their nucleus accumbens expand. It is as if the brain is a piano the environment can tune. Neuroscientist Curt Richter also made the case for rats having hope. In a study that wouldn’t be permitted today, rats swam in glass cylinders filled with water, eventually drowning from exhaustion if they weren’t rescued. Lab rats frequently handled by humans swam for hours to days. Wild rats gave up after just a few minutes. If the wild rats were briefly rescued, however, their survival time extended dramatically, sometimes by days. It seemed that being rescued gave the rats hope and spurred them on. The driving rats project has opened new and unexpected doors in my behavioral neuroscience research lab. While it’s vital to study negative emotions such as fear and stress, positive experiences also shape the brain in significant ways. As animals – human or otherwise – navigate the unpredictability of life, anticipating positive experiences helps drive a persistence to keep searching for life’s rewards. In a world of immediate gratification, these rats offer insights into the neural principles guiding everyday behavior. Rather than pushing buttons for instant rewards, they remind us that planning, anticipating and enjoying the ride may be key to a healthy brain. That’s a lesson my lab rats have taught me well. Kelly Lambert, Professor of Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Richmond This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. The post Neuroscientist Teaches Lab Rats to Drive appeared first on Anomalien.com.

CNN's Fareed Zakaria was somewhat more independent minded than most of his CNN colleagues and what he said on his Sunday show, Fareed Zakaria GPS, could make many of them feel anywhere between slightly to extremely uncomfortable. Zakaria listed three reasons for why the Democrats lost the presidency: ignoring the border crises, weaponizing the justice system to attack Donald Trump via lawfare, and identity politics. It was the first two reasons, and lawfare in particular, that would cause the most discomfort to many others at CNN.     In spelling out the reasons, Zakaria noted that Democrats missed the boat on the public's shifting attitude against the left's open border policies. He noted that instead of reflecting, Democrats just called those who opposed them racist: The first big error was the Biden Administration‘s blindness to the collapse of the immigration system and the chaos at the border. An asylum system that was meant for a small number of persecuted individuals was being used by millions to gain legal entry. Instead of shutting it down, liberals branded anyone protesting as heartless and racist. They missed a massive shift in American public opinion in just a few years. In 2020, the percentage of Americans who wanted to decrease immigration was just 28%. By this year, it was 55%. When Kamala Harris went on ‘The View’ and was asked how she would have differed from Biden, instead of basically saying, ‘Nothing different,’ she should have said, ‘I would have shut down the border early and hard.’ On the second reason, he noted that the lawsuits against Trump "piled on in rapid succession gave the impression that the legal system was being weaponized to get Trump" and how much money it helped to direct to his campaign coffers: The second error was an overzealous misuse of law to punish Trump. The most egregious of the cases pursued was Alvin Bragg‘s in New York, one that even he was once skeptical of, but was reportedly pressured by some on the left into pursuing. Some cases, like the Georgia one, were legitimate, but the host of them piled on in rapid succession gave the impression that the legal system was being weaponized to get Trump. It confirmed to his base what it had always believed: that over-educated, urban liberals are hypocrites, happy to bend rules and norms when it suited their purposes. It is worth noting that in this week‘s election, a CNN exit poll found that among those who believe that democracy in the U.S. is threatened, a majority supported Trump. Lawfare turned Trump from being a loser into a victor, and as his indictments grew, his campaign contributions surged and his poll numbers solidified. The final reason Zakaria gave was the left's swan dive into wokeism and their identity politics: The final error is a more diffuse one, the dominance of identity politics on the left, which made it push for all kinds of DEI policies that largely came out of the urban academic bubble, but alienated many mainstream voters. There is an irony in claiming to be pro-Latino by insisting that people use the term ‘Latinx,’ only to discover that Latinos themselves think the word is weird. This kind of obsession made Democrats view people too much through their ethnic or racial or gender identity, and it made them miss, for example, that working-class Latinos were moving toward Trump, perhaps, because they were socially conservative or liked his macho rhetoric or even agreed with his hard-line stance on immigration. One of Trump‘s most effective ads on trans issues had a tagline. We already know that CNN's legal analyst Elie Honig was highly critical of the use of lawfare against Trump but it remains to be seen what the attitudes will be among others at CNN on the criticisms presented by Zakaria.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's case against Daniel Penny in the death of Jordan Neely continues, revealing how the soft-on-crime DA's decision to go after Penny for protecting subway riders caused witnesses to go into self-preservation mode.Eric Gonzalez, who helped Penny restrain Neely after Neely made death threats on a New York City subway last year, testified for the prosecution on Tuesday that he lied when he was initially interviewed by the Manhattan District Attorney's Office as a suspect in Neely's death, the New York Post reported.'I’ve seen a lot of unstable people. This felt different to me.'Gonzalez said he lied out of fear of being "pinned for" Neely's death, telling the DA's office he arrived on the scene earlier than he actually did and claiming that Neely had hit him, prompting Penny to act. Neely did not physically touch anyone prior to Penny restraining him, according to witnesses. The lies were an attempt at "justifying my actions," Gonzalez said.On account of his initial false statements, Gonzalez entered a non-prosecution agreement with Bragg's office. Gonzalez further testified he told Penny he would grab hold of Neely's hands and that Penny should let him go, but Penny did not let go even as Neely motioned to be released.Gonzalez also expressed concerns regarding his role in the trial. "There’s all these protests going on. I’m scared for myself and for my family," he explained on the stand.On Tuesday, jurors were also shown a frame-by-frame video of Penny's hold on Neely. “You will see Mr. Neely’s life being snuffed out before your very eyes,” Assistant District Attorney Dafna Yoran said during opening statements.More police body-camera footage from the day of the incident shows witnesses praising Penny for his actions to keep people on the subway car safe."The guy in the tan [Penny] did take him down really respectfully. ... He didn't choke him," a woman told officers.Witnesses for the prosecution, many of whom have been subway riders for many years, testified that they have never been more scared for their lives than when Neely began threatening them.“No, I did not feel safe when he was moving around erratically. I’ve taken the subway for 30 years, and I’ve seen a lot. I’ve seen a lot of unstable people. This felt different to me," Lori Sitro said last week.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

A Michigan woman who was fired after refusing the COVID-19 vaccine because of her "sincerely held" Catholic beliefs has just won a massive lawsuit.On Friday, a Detroit jury awarded Lisa Domski nearly $13 million after she was terminated from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan on account of her refusal to take the shots. Of the $12.69 million she was awarded, $10 million was for punitive damages, $1.7 million for lost wages, and $1 million for noneconomic damages, Lawyer Monthly reported.'This win isn’t just about compensation; it’s about standing up for employee rights.'Domski, an IT specialist from the Detroit suburb of Wyandotte who worked for BCBS of Michigan for a total of 38 years, was fired in January 2022 after requesting a religious exemption to the vaccine mandate imposed at the company a few months earlier.Around November 1, 2021, BCBS of Michigan announced that all employees, even those like Domski who were mostly working remotely, had to be vaccinated by December 8 or apply for a religious exemption. Domski opted to apply for a religious exemption on account of what her lawsuit described as her "sincerely held religious beliefs." Without being permitted to have a lawyer present, she was then grilled by company officials, who asked her questions such as, "What do you do when you are in physical pain?" "Do you take Aspirin, Sudafed, Tums, or Tylenol?" and "Have you always followed this religious belief?" the lawsuit claimed.Domski even furnished officials with the name of her parish and her priest, to no avail.After officials probed the sincerity of her religious beliefs and the religious beliefs of other employees applying for an exemption, BCBS of Michigan placed many of them on unpaid leave before firing approximately 250 of them, including Domski, on January 5, 2022. However, according to Domski's lawsuit, the company "allowed other unvaccinated employees without Plaintiff's same religious beliefs to be exempted" from the vaccine mandate.Now, three years later, Domski and her attorney, Jon Marko, are celebrating the jury's decision as a "major victory" in the fight to protect religious liberties."Our forefathers fought and died for the freedom for each American to practice his or her own religion. Neither the government nor a corporation has a right to force an individual to choose between his or her career and conscience," Marko said in a statement to Blaze News."Lisa refused to renounce her faith and beliefs and was wrongfully terminated from the only job she had ever known. The jury’s verdict today tells BCBSM that religious discrimination has no place in America and affirms each person’s right to religious freedom."As might be expected, BCBS of Michigan was less effusive about the decision, expressing appreciation for jurors and the process but disappointment with the result."Throughout the pandemic, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, together with its employees, worked to promote the health and safety of our colleagues, stakeholders, and communities," the company said in a statement, according to TNND."In implementing the vaccine policy, Blue Cross designed an accommodation process that complied with state and federal law and respected the sincerely held religious beliefs of its employees."The company also indicated that it was still exploring its "legal options" to determine a "path forward."Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

What are the Black Ops 6 events? If you’re on the hunt for even more cosmetic goodies and unlockable weapons in BO6, you’re in luck. Black Ops 6 has brought back limited-time, seasonal events that reward you handsomely for completing various challenges. As of Black Ops 6 Season 1, there’s only one event to speak of for now. However, Treyarch has already confirmed more Black Ops 6 events are on the way with December’s mid-season update for the FPS game - Zombies enjoyers, you’re not being left out of the fun, either. So, polish off your best BO6 loadouts, get out onto the BO6 maps, and start racking up those rewards. Continue reading Black Ops 6 events explained MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Black Ops 6 guns, Black Ops 6 missions, Black Ops 6 loadouts

How do you unlock the Saug in Black Ops 6? SMGs in Black Ops 6 come in many flavors. Some offer controllable recoil, some are slow-firing but hard-hitting, and many operate in a jack-of-all-trades space. What we’ve been missing, however, is an SMG that is pure chaos. That is, until now. The Saug SMG is a compact maelstrom, capable of clearing rooms of hostiles without a hint of effort. There’s plenty to dig into with Black Ops 6 Season 1, but perhaps the most exciting addition to our BO6 weapons armory is the Saug. An SMG with this much raw power is an intriguing prospect; do you refine the gun to suit a bigger variety of combat situations, or do you lean into the chaos? First things first, how do you unlock the Black Ops 6 Saug? Continue reading How to unlock the Black Ops 6 Saug MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Black Ops 6 guns, Black Ops 6 missions, Black Ops 6 loadouts

The latest AMD Ryzen gaming CPUs have begun to hit the gaming handheld market, and OneXPlayer’s latest hardware has been demonstrated showing definitive improvements, with its frame rates firmly beating those of the Asus ROG Ally X. The race to make the best handheld gaming PC has heated up over the last few years, particularly after the release of Valve's Steam Deck in 2022. OneXPlayer, which appeared on the scene before Valve, provides premium end systems that cram in as much power as possible. Its latest, the OneXFly F1 Pro is no different. With an OLED screen, up to 64GB of DDR5 RAM, and a new AMD processor, it's already squishing the competition. Continue reading This gaming handheld just stomped on the Asus ROG Ally X, thanks to new AMD GPU MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Ryzen 7 7800X3D review, Best gaming CPU, Radeon RX 7800 XT review

The secret chests in the Lighthouse are some of the most well-hidden of all the chests scattered throughout Dragon Age: The Veilguard.

The Gate of Deep Sorrows is one of several gates you will be tasked with unlocking in the Crossroads. Each gate has a Timelost Hoard hidden behind it, which are chests filled with some of the best loot in the game. The gates can't be opened from within the Crossroads, however.