Friday, November 09, 2007

WATCH IT TOM! EXPERTS FIND FEARLESS JERRIES

As we all know from watching Tom and Jerry, they dont get along much, as it is in real life. Mouses are well known for their sense of fear, and their quick response to any signs of danger. Scientists in Japan believe that the main cause of this is their excellent sense of smell. To test this they decided to shut down certain receptors in the brain that deal with smell and were suprised at their results.

The scientists removed parts of the brain, especially certain receptors on the olfactory bulb. The results end up making Jerries that have no fear of Tom. The brown mouses are seen an inch of cats, playing with the cats and sniffing up the ear and kissing the ears. It is believed that mouses have ability to smell their predators, and the smell triggers a signal that alerts them of danger. But with the part of their brain that can detect these smells gone, they have virtually created mouses that have no fear, for they can not sense it.

To test their hypothesis, they had two lines of mouses. One with the operation, and the other control wild type. They exposed the mice to urine samples of their predators. The control mice smelled the urine then ran the other way. However , the mices with the operation did not react at all. The only response was curiosity, but no sign of fear. Later when the mouses were put next to cats, they reacted playfully and with curiosity. It is important to note however, the cats had to be fed before introducing them to the mouses, so as to prevent any accidents.

Posted By, Swetha Raghavan (7)

3 Comments:

At 4:09 PM, Blogger PWH said...

Very nice article. It is interesting that mice rely so much on their sense of smell to detect danger. I always expected various animals to have many back-up mechanisms to detect dangerous things which is important for survival. I am just wondering where was this study conducted and how long? And did they talk at all about some of the other side-effects of removing the olfactory bulbs? Did it cause any other behavioral changes within the mice?

Posted by: Balkrishna Gantyala(7)

 
At 9:25 PM, Blogger PWH said...

This is a very interesting article. What if the receptors of the olfactory bulb were removed in significantly large amount of mice and they were able to interact with the wild type control mice, do you think that the control mice would alter their behavior around cats if they saw the mice like Jerry have no fear against their predators? Could there be a change without altering the olfactory bulbs? With altering the olfactory bulb, what other behavioral changes occur? I am also curious to know more about the olfactory bulb and if the same results hold for any other animals. Overall great job!!!

Posted By:
Nelina Bridge (7)

 
At 12:19 AM, Blogger PWH said...

This is a very interesting post. I have always liked the cartoon, I just hope they dont use this technique with humans next. Is there more information on what kind of setting this test was done? Overall great job

Posted by: Kirubakarn Sivagurunathan (7)

 

Post a Comment

<< Home