Theme for a dream: getting ratsense?

All of us dream! But so rarely do we ever remember our dreams. Ever wondered what our pets dream about and whether it is possible to tell what our pets dream of. In a recent research project, scientists working at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have figured out about what rats dream about.

Lead investigator in the study, Mathew Wilson and his assistant trained rats to run around a circular track, but stop at regular intervals to obtain food. As the rats were busy romping about merrily, the firing pattern of the neurons in their Hippocampuses were examined. The investigators observed that the neurons fired in distinctive patterns that were different from rat to rat, but unique to each animal. Whew! What an interesting observation! The inferences that the investigators made was that firing patterns seen during rapid eye movement sleep in the rats though not identical to that seen when the rats were awake were very distinct. So clear was the inference that the investigators could even clearly pinpoint even the tracks or the position on the tracks where the rats imagined themselves to be.