Genetically Engineered Mouse is Not Scared of Cats

Gary writes "A team from the University of Tokyo has genetically engineered a mouse that does not fear cats. By tweaking genes to disable certain functions of the olfactory bulb (the area of the brain that receives information about smells directly from olfactory receptors in the nose) the researchers were able to create a 'fearless' mouse that does not try to flee when it smells cats, foxes and other predators. 'The research suggests that the mechanism by which mammals determine whether or not to fear another animal they smell -- and whether or not to flee -- is not a higher-order cerebral function. Instead, that decision is made based on a lower-order function that is hardwired into the neural circuitry of the olfactory bulb.'"

Smell only?

[by Anonymous Coward]

So he's fearless if he smells a predator. What if the mouse sees a cat running full speed at him?

Re:Smell only?

[Dunbal (464142)]

Something tells me these mice are an evolutionary dead end...

Re:Smell only?

[xPsi (851544)]

Something tells me these mice are an evolutionary dead end...

I had the same response initially as well. However, the point of the research has nothing to do with mice or fear per se, rather, from TFA, the point is to:

better understand the structure of the brain's neural circuitry responsible for processing information about the outside world

. Turning off and on various inputs (like smell) is a good way to proceed. Nevertheless, as a general principle, I think most mice would agree that turning off the fear of cats would be a bad thing. And, hey, let's face it, the cats would be pretty disappointed too since giving chase is 90% of the fun for them.

Re:Smell only?

[SatanicPuppy (611928)]

It's not really about fun; most predators are hardwired to chase things that run, because that's a good indication of edibility...If it doesn't run, there may be something going on there, something that it may not be in your best interest to find out about the hard way.

If it does run, however, you can make a high percentage guess that it thinks that's its best defense in the situation, so you're pretty safe in chasing it...It's not going to fail at running, then turn around and bite your head off.

Re:Smell only?

[Zarf (5735)]

most predators are hardwired to chase things that run, because that's a good indication of edibility...If it doesn't run, there may be something going on there, something that it may not be in your best interest to find out about the hard way.

And, that's why in survival training the tell you not to run from a bear. If the bear sees you run you trigger the predator response. So instead you talk to the bear and back away the way you came. Bears don't normally eat things that talk and move backwards so you probably won't get mistaken for food. The result is a bear that is some what confused as to how it should react... so you just might get away.

So I wonder if our brave mousy friends get treated with equal confusion by cats.

Re:Smell only?

[Fishead (658061)]

How about try this on rabbits, then turn loose a whole bunch in Australia. A few years later you may have a boom in Dingo population, but if we then breed Dingo's that are scared of Kangaroos...

Re:Smell only?

[eln (21727)]

Easy, he just puts something slick like a banana peel on the floor and holds out a frying pan and waits for the cat to run face first into it.

Re:Smell only?

[Aladrin (926209)]

Or maybe they modified more than just the sense of smell, by mistake. I'm not trying to be all gloom and doom, but there's no way they fully understand what modifications they made. We still only know the very basics about DNA... Until they can -for sure- know all the effects modifying a gene will have, they can't say that their research means anything.

I happen to believe that they are correct in that mice fears predators at an instinct level... But I disagree that it's smell alone.

Fearless Mice..

[kabocox (199019)]

I can't find myself fearing fearless mice. Why? Because there was most likely a very good reason for the mice that they are afraid of cats and large things that can eat them... I just can't seem to worry about these things getting loose and breeding in the wild.

It's sort of like the fear of spiders, snakes, bears, and large cats. There are very valid reasons for humans to be naturally afraid of things that can kill/harm and maybe eat us.

Re:Fearless Mice..

[GrievousMistake (880829)]

Well I bet you'll change your mind once you stand face to face with the new race of fearless, regenerating mice that can run six kilometres without rest and glow in the dark. But by then it will be far too late to do anything but welcome our new cheese-eating overlords.
Their only weakness is a slightly increased risk of cancer when exposed to various substances. Oh, if only we had invested equal resources in building better cats!

Re:Fearless Mice..

[malf-uk (456583)]

and we won't be able to hide because of the giant ear on their backs

Not New

[moehoward (668736)]

Not news. They already engineering ones that do not fear my wife. It was only a matter of time.

Another team took the opposite approach and genetically engineered many people I know to have an irrational fear of global warming.

I'm glad their tackling this fear things from both ends.

Finally, a breakthrough for slashdot users...

[scoser (780371)]

Once we have this treatment available for humans, Slashdotters will no longer be afraid of women!

In other news...

[red_dragon (1761)]

In other news, Doraemon is still scared of mice.

I hope the scientists don't try for a patent..

[idontgno (624372)]

There's ample prior art [wikipedia.org].

And his name is Jerry.

[LWATCDR (28044)]

This mouse is often seen wielding a large mallet.

it is ridiculous to extrapolate

[circletimessquare (444983)]

these results to man. for unlike the lower animals, we are motivated by higher mental orders of conscience and reason. of course, some wankers will come along and say that we are also help captive to these lower impulses. but i say-

mmm... who's cooking brownies?

An example for non-hunters who may not know

[BenEnglishAtHome (449670)]

The sense of smell is a big deal in the way predator and prey interact. For example, without a doubt the best way to get rid of the squirrels in your attic is to squirt just a small amount of fox urine fox urine [cabelas.com] up there. Just a few drops around your attic ladder opening will have those little farts on the run and gone within a day. Then plug up whatever holes originally allowed them to get up there and the problem is solved.

One caution: I've found that it only works once. If you don't seal up those holes, the squirrels come back and the second application doesn't work. Maybe you just need fresh urine. But no matter the reason, don't put off the soffet repairs (or whatever work you need to do) after scaring them away.

Solution is worse than the problem!

[nobodyman (90587)]

For example, without a doubt the best way to get rid of the squirrels in your attic is to squirt just a small amount of fox urine fox urine up there.

Oh yeah? Well what happens when my attic is bristling with foxes . Now that they smell a fox-friendly, air conditioned home? What then, smarty pants? Bobcat urine? No thanks! I'll stick with squirrels, thankyouverymuch. At least they fill my attic with acorns.

It that really the conclusion?

[Elucid (112657)]

Maybe someone pointed this out already, or perhaps I am just a bozo...

If a mouse's sensorium is determined a great deal by its sense of smell... and you disable that sense of smell... its "higher-order cerebral functions" would be impaired because they would not be getting the input they require to make decisions. How can you conclude that fear in mammals is related to the oflactory sense? Other mammals may use other senses to a larger degree.

To me, this seems like the old joke about the bad scientist who concluded that a frog with all its legs removed becomes deaf because it doen't jump when he yells at it.

Re:Now

[Dunbal (464142)]

No, what really freaked the cat out was when the mouse tried to mate with it...

Re:Seems flawed...

[Kadin2048 (468275)]

Well, I think that it's interconnected; there are certain smell receptors in a mouse that are hardwired to the "oh shit, run" response. They have disabled that in these mice, either by breaking the connection or disabling/removing the smell receptors more directly. The result is that the behavior is not present anymore.

That's really the interesting thing, here: they have found a genetic variation that produces a very definite, high-level behavioral change. That's pretty cool.

Although it's clear that many animals have a lot of behaviors that are 'instinctive' and must be carried genetically (which you can test by bringing an animal up in an environment that's devoid of other animals and monitoring it's behavior), it's not terribly clear exactly how they work and are transmitted. This might be one small step towards understanding a part of that.

Re:Oh really?

[B3ryllium (571199)]

My cat doesn't have an eat mouse reflex - it's evolved into a "bat the mouse around for two hours until it dies of a heart attack, and then leave it somewhere that Food Bringing Slave can step on it!" reflex ...

Re:Oh really?

[Nazlfrag (1035012)]

A feral cat wouldn't have those issues, it would have slaughtered that mouse the second it didn't run fast enough. Yours is just a pussy.

Re:Rodent diseases?

[rbanffy (584143)]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxoplasmosis [wikipedia.org]

"It has been found that the parasite has the ability to change the behavior of its host: infected rats and mice are less fearful of cats"