Astronauts Wire Rats in Space Experiment

Rats wired to record brain activity raced around a twisted track aboard the space shuttle Columbia in an experiment that could help Alzheimer’s patients. In the experiment by Bruce McNaughton, a psychologist from the University of Arizona, four male rats--their claws clinging to Velcro in the absence of gravity-- were to find their way around two tracks in Columbia’s neurological laboratory. Tiny wires, thinner than a human hair, were surgically implanted in each rat’s hippocampus, the part of the brain thought to be responsible for the sense of location. By studying cell activity in the hippocampus, deep in the center of the brain, scientists hope to learn how well the brain keeps track of location without the aid of gravity.