Neuroscience: These 'Behaviorceuticals' Improve Brain Health

Now I am going to go out on a limb here and guess that, even during your most relaxing shower or most endless DMV wait, this is not a question you have considered. Which is a shame. One, because imagining rats driving cars is adorable (see below). And two, because clever scientists recently discovered an answer to this question.

Don’t worry, scientists aren’t wasting taxpayer money trying to convince subway rats to drive themselves out of the city. Rather, a group of neuroscientists, led by Kelly Lambert of the University of Richmond, were interested in seeing how confronting difficulties and learning new things affects animals’ brains. 

Ultimately, they were hoping to help human animals be a little happier and cognitively healthy. But rats — with their smaller, simpler, more easily studied brains — were a convenient place to start. 

What they discovered wasn’t just that rats can be gearheads. They also showed that simple behaviors can help people boost their mood and brain health like natural antidepressants. They dubbed these approaches behaviorceuticals. 

As Lambert explained in a recent article for The Conversation and in her TEDx talk, rats apparently adore Fruit Loops and will do most anything to get them. That includes learning to drive a simple miniature car by pulling a small lever that navigates the vehicle toward a much-craved breakfast cereal reward. 

“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,” reports Lambert on The Conversation. 

You might think the rats were just excited for the Fruit Loops. Maybe that was why they “eagerly ran to the side of the cage, jumping up like my dog does when asked if he wants to take a walk” when a researcher approached.  

To figure out if the rats were just craving Fruit Loops or excited about the driving itself, Lambert and her team designed a series of experiments. In each they divided their subjects into two groups that they informally dubbed worker rats and trust fund rats. Worker rats had to do something active and a little difficult, like dig through a pile of bedding, to get their Fruit Loops. The rat equivalent of rich kids just had their Fruit Loops handed to them. 

Who did better? Not the rats luckily selected for a life of ease. Worker rats explored new environments more, even if it was difficult. They coped with challenges better. And when the scientists examined their brains, they saw evidence of greater complexity and neuroplasticity, or the brain’s ability to grow and change in response to the environment–a hallmark of brain health. 

You can’t ask a rat how they’re feeling, but Lambert reports the worker rats showed signs, in their body language and behavior, that are associated with rat joy. They even opted to drive to get their Fruit Loops rather than go to their favorite snack on foot, even if running was faster. 

Clearly, putting in effort to get rewards made the rats happier and neurologically healthier. That’s handy to know if you were considering teaching your pet rat to drive, but thankfully there is a takeaway here beyond that sliver of the population. 

That lesson isn’t just that you might want to think carefully about giving your children a trust fund (though maybe you should if you have the good fortune to find yourself in that situation). Lambert insists that the bigger takeaway is that simple behaviors can have big effects on our brains. So much so that they can act in a similar way to antidepressants like Prozac, improving brain health, mood, and all-around flourishing. 

“We need to remember our evolutionary roots,” Lambert concludes in her TEDx talk. Moving our bodies to learn new tasks and overcome obstacles is rewarding not just to rats, but to humans too. Our brains have evolved to do that, not type all day on laptops.  

Learning a new hobby, going for a hike with friends, or taking that cooking or dancing class is the human equivalent of teaching a rat to drive. It provides us with the satisfaction of overcoming obstacles while moving our bodies, and quite literally changes our brains in positive ways.