A new study from the University of Minnesota shows tha rats have the ability to experience regret. Regret is a cognitive behavior once thought to be unique to humans, but neuroscientists A. David Redish, Ph.D and Adam Steiner explained to Science Daily that this isn't actually the case:
To study regret, the scientists devised the following experiment:
When the rats faced a bad decision, their brains reacted like a human's:
There's no word on whether rats also feel regret when they eat too much of their favorite food, an emotion I experience every time I choose the Korean taco truck over Chop't. For the sake of rats, I can only hope that particular existential concern is ours alone to bear.
[via Science Daily and Animal New York]
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