Rat and a mini camera.....

["Scott" <becubed@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Boffins develop remote control rodents

AFP - American scientists have developed a system for remote controlling rats
that could one day be used to help mine disposal experts and earthquake rescue
workers, according to science journal Nature.

The discovery marries high technology to the well-known fact that laboratory
animals can be trained to produce a particular reaction to an external cue,
such as a bell, in order to obtain food or another reward.

Sanjiv Talwar and his colleagues at New York State University, whose study will
be published in the Thursday edition of Nature, found that they could achieve
similar responses from the animals by directly stimulating their brains with
implanted electrodes.

They equipped the rats with "backpacks" containing a microprocessor-based remote-controlled
stimulator and trained them to navigate a figure of eight maze.

They then succeeded in guiding the rats around open environments, without the
boundaries and fixed choice points of the maze, at distances of up to 500 metres
(yards).

 "Our rats were easily guided through pipes and across elevated runways and
ledges and could be instructed to climb or jump," the researchers wrote, adding
that the animals could be made to perform for up to an hour at a time.

"We were also able to guide rats in systematically exploring large, collapsed
piles of concrete rubble," they added.

They said the findings might have implications for new neurophysiological studies
and real world applications such as earthquake rescue operations or landmine
detection.