Can rats laugh? Rats can laugh when tickled - scientists

Do animals have a sense of humor? In rats for sure

Article author: Jesse Bering is a writer for Scientific American, Slate, and Swiss publication Das Magazin. He previously served as Director of the Institute for Cognitive and Cultural Studies at Queen's University Belfast. Behring now lives in Ithaca, New York.

Do animals have a sense of humor? Perhaps, to some extent, yes. But the full sense of humor that adults possess seems to be unique to us. However, research over the past decade has led to the surprising discovery that rats (particularly young rats) can laugh! At least this is the conclusion made by scientists Jaak Panksepp(Jaak Panksepp), who published in the magazine Behavioral Brain Research a remarkable and heatedly discussed article describing his position on this issue.

In particular, Panksepp's work focused on determining “the likelihood that experiences of communal fun during play activities may exist in the animals most commonly used in experiments (laboratory rodents). And the accompanying vocalization is an important communicative and emotional component of this process, strengthening social connections - this is the rudimentary form of laughter.” Now, before you start imagining the hilarious giggle of a cartoon Stuart Lytle(or was he a mouse?), I will make a reservation that the laughter of real rats sounds completely different from that of people.

Human laughter is a pulsating sound, similar to a machine gun burst, which begins with a noisy exhalation and consists of a series of short, distinct sounds, separated by pauses of equal duration. Classic human laughter sounds like an aspirated "x" sound followed by a vowel, most often "a".

Unlike us, rats “laugh” by emitting high-frequency (about 50 kHz) ultrasonic signals, similar to squeaking and clearly different from other sound signals of rodents. Panksepp describes the phenomenon he discovered in these words: “When I completed my first well-organized ethological analysis of power play in children in the late 1990s, where laughter was the most frequently occurring vocalization, it occurred to me (perhaps misleadingly) that that the squeak we recorded in the 50 kHz range in playing rats may be a very distant ancestor of human laughter. The next morning I came into the laboratory and asked my undergraduate assistant to help me tickle the rats.”

In subsequent years, Panksepp and his collaborators systematically conducted studies studying the “laughter” of rats and revealed a surprising coincidence of the functional and expressive characteristics of the squeaking response in young rodents and laughter in children. To make his little rats "laugh," Panksepp used a technique he called "interspecies hand play" (essentially a slang term for "tickle").
As it turned out, rats are especially sensitive to tickling in the nape area, which also serves as a target for children who strive to tickle each other in this area in their games. Panksepp soon discovered that the animals most susceptible to tickling were also the most playful in a group of experimental animals in their usual environment. The researcher also found that such induced laughter induces attachment in rats: rodents who were tickled as children will actively seek the hands of the person who previously made them laugh. However, certain unpleasant environmental influences sharply reduce the number of such squeaks in them.

For example, if pups sense a cat odor or extreme hunger, or are faced with harsh bright light, then the frequency of squeaks is significantly reduced. Panksepp also found that adult females were more susceptible to tickling than males. Finally, when baby rats were given a choice between two different adults, one of which spontaneously squeaked quite often and the other was silent, the pups spent significantly more time with the animal that was presumably happier.

Unfortunately, Panksepp's theory found virtually no support from his colleagues. Nevertheless, the researcher insists: “We tried many times to refute our point of view, but we never succeeded. Accordingly, we are humbled and pleased to carefully advance and confirm with empirical data the theoretical assumption that there is some kind of family connection between the playful squeaking of young rats and infantile laughter in humans."
Panksepp does not claim that rats have a full sense of humor. He just thinks there is an evolutionary relationship between the laughter of children during power play and similar vocalizations in young rats. A sense of humor, especially in adults, requires cognitive mechanisms that may or may not be shared by other species.

The scientist suggests that answering an empirically falsifiable question will help provide some clarity: “If a cat acts as a constant source of excitement in the life of a rat, will that rat make a happy squeak if something unpleasant happens to the cat? Will she "chuckle" happily if the cat gets caught in a trap or someone grabs her by the tail and lifts her into the air? We do not recommend such experiments at all, but we would be happy to support anyone who wishes to move in this direction and find more compassionate ways to evaluate this ability.”

Differences between the “apparatuses” responsible for laughter in different species of mammals reflect interspecies differences in the structure of the vocal apparatus and certain areas of the brain. In the same issue of the journal Behavioral Brain Research, neuropsychologist Martin Meyer Martin Meyer and his colleagues described such differences in detail. Although fMRI studies of people who watched funny cartoons or listened to jokes found that evolutionarily ancient brain structures, such as the amygdala and nucleus accumbens, were activated, younger, higher-order structures were also activated at the same time. including large areas of the frontal cortex. So while primates can laugh, the human sense of humor is associated with more specialized neural networks that are responsible for cognitive abilities that are not characteristic of other species.

In people, laughter is caused by a number of social stimuli and occurs under the influence of a wide range of emotions, not always positive. Some typical emotional states associated with laughter include feelings of joy, love, amazement, amusement, discouragement, nervousness, sadness, fear, shame, aggression, triumph, ridicule, and schadenfreude (joy at someone else's misfortune). But usually laughter is an emotionally charged signal that is made in the presence of others.

Psychologist Diana Sameitat(Diana Szameitat) and her colleagues began studying the possible adaptive functions of human laughter. Her research, published in the journal Emotion, provided the first experimental evidence demonstrating that people have the remarkable ability to recognize the intentions of a person laughing from the phonetic characteristics of the sounds produced. Due to the fact that sometimes laughter, as the author points out, signals a very aggressive mood, in the process of evolution biologically adaptive behavioral reactions to it on the part of the listener should have been consolidated.

In a controlled laboratory experiment, it is extremely difficult to evoke one single pure emotion in a person, so for her first study, Sameitat came up with the following interesting move: she hired eight professional actors (three men and five women) and recorded their laughter.

Obviously, this is not an ideal solution; the researchers themselves were fully aware of the conditional suitability of the “emotional imitations” used instead of real feelings, but “the actors were tasked with concentrating solely on the expression of the emotional state, and not on the external imitation of laughter as such.” Below are the four types of laughter that subjects attempted, along with the comments (or script) used to help them get into character:

Joyful laughter. You met a good friend after a long separation.

A sarcastic laugh. You laugh at your opponent after you have defeated him. Laughter reflects the emotion of mocking contempt and serves the purpose of humiliating the listener.

Malevolent laughter Laughing at another person who has had a bad experience, such as slipping on dog feces. However, in contrast to ridicule, the person laughing does not want to seriously harm the other person.

After the recordings were made, 72 more subjects were invited to the laboratory; They were given headphones and given the task of identifying the emotions that accompanied this laughter.

Participants listened to a large number of recordings of laughter—a total of 429 excerpts ranging in length from three to nine seconds: for each emotion there were 102 to 111 excerpts, from which sequences were randomly compiled. (This took them about an hour, a nightmare idea that reminded me of 1980s television sitcoms and focused my attention on the peculiarities of the laughter.) The results were impressive: the subjects were able to correctly (well above chance) classify the recordings of laughter according to their emotional connotation. , which was often barely noticeable.

In the second study, the procedure was almost identical, but participants had to answer other questions, already related to social aspects. In particular, after listening to each recording, the subjects were asked whether the person laughing (i.e., the sender of the signal) was in a calm or excited state, as well as what position he occupied relative to the receiver of the signal (i.e., the one in whose presence they were laughing), the dominant one. or subordinate; whether the laughing person is in a good or bad mood and how he is disposed towards the recipient of the signal - friendly or aggressive. In the second experiment there could be no right or wrong answers, since the definition of shades of laughter is associated with subjective perception.

However, as expected, each type of laughter (joyful, mocking, malicious and ticklish) had its own characteristic frequency profile, characteristic only of this type of social situations. It turned out that the subjects used this information to accurately identify the specific social context in a scene that was invisible to them. For example, joyful laughter evoked assumptions about a low degree of arousal, peacefulness and good mood of both participants (both the one to whom the laughter was addressed and the one who emits it). Ridicule was sharply different from this: it expressed dominance and was the only sound that was perceived by the subjects as clearly negatively colored in relation to the addressee.

Participants' perceptions of malicious laughter were particularly interesting. They heard notes of dominance in him, but it was not as obvious as in the case of ridicule; those who made this sound were considered to be in a good mood (much more than with ridicule, but less than with tickling). This type of laughter was neither regarded as friendly nor aggressive, but rather produced a neutral impression. When interpreting the data, the authors used the logic of evolutionary teaching: “malicious laughter could represent a certain (and socially acceptable) instrument of domination over the listener without simultaneously excluding him from society.”

I would like to believe that back in the mid-1990s I witnessed King's pure, unadulterated, joyful laughter, but of course my brain is not capable of recognizing the different emotional states of gorillas. I think King undoubtedly laughed at Ellen DeGeneres later, watching her show from his cage on TV. I realize two examples is a small sample size, but perhaps he thought gay people were especially funny.

In any case, I like to think about the evolution of joy. And I want to say that the results of the studies done with rats made me remember the old days of vegetarianism; Not that I eat rodents, of course, but the very thought of killing animals that can laugh makes me dislike fresh tenderloin. If only pork wasn't so tasty!

Based on materials from the magazine "In the World of Science" September 2012

Rats, although they belong to rodents, are still quite different from most representatives of this order. Among the distinctive features of these animals, which are very common as pets, it is worth highlighting their high intellectual abilities, intelligence and cunning. But that's not all - as scientists have found, rats can laugh and this especially emphasizes their uniqueness. Of all the living creatures living on the planet, only humans and rats are able to laugh consciously. The ability of rodents not only to have fun, but also to laugh at the same time, like people, is probably due to the fact that the human and rat genomes coincide by 95%.

What makes rats laugh?

The best way to make a rat laugh and admire its fun is to tickle the animal. The animal's reaction to tickling is no different from that of humans. This is the responsibility of neurons that regulate mood, located in both humans and rats in the frontal lobes of the brain.

You can give a small rodent pleasure, and at the same time see his smile and hear the laughter of your beloved pet, by tickling the most sensitive areas of his body:

• tummy;
• the reverse (inner) side of the legs, i.e. feet;
• behind the ears;
• withers (neck).

The animal will like this kind of entertainment and in the process it will definitely begin to smile and squeak fervently, as if laughing. A rat's laughter usually resembles a giggle, but sometimes it sounds more like a light grunt.

Usually, after the first such “procedure,” the animal looks forward to the next session. At every opportunity, he will hope to reach out to the owner's hands, as if exposing his carcass. Of course, this only happens if the animal is in a good mood or if the first experience was successful and did not turn into stress. To avoid the latter, you should not try to tickle your pet when he is busy with something (eating, playing, etc.).

It is worth noting that the animals laugh merrily not only from tickling. The laughter of animals while playing with each other (or even just while watching the antics of their relatives) is a common occurrence. An interesting nuance - when choosing a soul mate, females in most cases give preference to the funniest individuals.

How rats express laughter

The Rat laughs when it is having fun, when it wants to demonstrate its joy or delight. Laughter in a rodent is a characteristic sign of happiness and pleasure from what is happening at the current moment. But depending on its sound, an animal’s laughter can express completely different emotions - a rodent is capable of laughing maliciously, sarcastically, etc.

What other sounds can rats make?

Laughter is far from the only sound that animals can make. They have a whole system of expressing emotions and feelings through various sound signals that differ in character and tone. Knowledge of this system will help the owner better understand his pet - as if a rodent can speak. So, if the animal:

• squeaks, squeals or chirps for a long time - he is either in pain (or simply uncomfortable) or scared (these sounds for a rodent are equivalent to screaming, so it would be useful to carefully examine the pet - perhaps he was injured, even if there are no visible injuries, and there are no frightening factors, it’s worth showing the animal to the veterinarian);
• hisses, wheezes or chatters his teeth - he is out of sorts, aggressive and hostile, after such a signal it is better not to touch the pet, so as not to get a bite from a toothy pet and not to aggravate his moral state;
• Grits his teeth - he is happy, in a good mood.

It is important to evaluate not only the sound itself, but also its tonality, since, for example, the wheezing emitted by a rat may indicate not a hostile mood, but health problems (the animal has a cold, choked on food and is suffocating, etc.). Of course, the animal can sneeze and cough, but these are only signs of a cold.

How rats move depending on their emotions

The animal knows how to express its joyful laughter not only by sound or expression of its face with a satisfied smile. As an alternative way to laugh, the rodent uses its ears. If they turn red and hang relaxed, as if limp, it means the animal is laughing silently.

A laughing rat is a fairly common occurrence, familiar to all owners of these cute rodents. In order for the animal to delight with its cheerful giggles for as long as possible, no special effort is required - it is enough to provide it with suitable comfortable living conditions, properly care for it and, of course, sincerely love it, not forgetting to demonstrate your feelings to the little pet. The rodent will certainly reciprocate the love and care of its owner, and a happy smile will almost constantly adorn its pretty face.

Can you tell when rats feel happy? It turns out that all you need to do is look at their ears. A recent study found that just as humans smile to express pleasure, rodents relax their ears, which then turn pink.

Behavior of rats when they are upset

There have been many studies that have looked at the behavior of rats when they are upset or distressed, mainly so that scientists using them as biological models can understand whether the tests may now have a negative impact.
Depressed rats, for example, isolate themselves from the group and do not interact with each other or attempt to escape if held by the tail. Scientists have even come up with a rat grimace scale to assess how much a rodent is suffering by looking at its facial expression.

Exploring Positive Emotions

But not much has been done to study positive emotions in rats.

It was recently discovered that when rats feel tickled, they seem to experience a rush of happy emotions and even express this through vocalization, although the frequency is too high for humans to hear.
Thus, this behavior suggests that rats can laugh. Based on this, the scientists in this latest study decided to use belly tickling to test how a rat's facial expression would change when it was happy.

15 test rats were tickled and the team photographed their faces to see if any noticeable changes occurred. Scientists discovered that the rodents "smiled" with their ears. When the rats were happy, their ears became relaxed and at the same time turned red. When animals were not happy (after white noise was used on them), their ears became alert.

Suggested Explanation

Why this happens is difficult to explain. Their ears are likely starting to droop as the rodents relax, but the change in color is harder to decipher. The ears turn pink because there is an increase in blood flow to them, but whether this is because the animals feel happier or because their bellies are tickled increases physical activity is not yet known.

How rats feel when they “laugh” with their ears is even more difficult to understand. You can't ask that question of rodents. But scientists can scan their brains. Considering that rats' brains are made up of the same connections as our own, including all the same chemicals and functions, it wouldn't be too far-fetched to assume that they feel much the same way we do.

What distinguishes a rat from all other rodents is not just cunning, a lively mind and quick wit. As zoologists have found out, the rat is still laughing! Certain sounds that these mammals can make resemble giggling. Moreover, of all the known representatives of the fauna of the Earth, only people and these cute rodents know how to laugh, doing it consciously. Scientists have long established that the genomes of humans and rats are 95% similar. How can the owner make his tailed pet laugh and enjoy the funny smile on his beloved face?

To bring a smile to your pet’s favorite face, you can tickle:

• along the inner surface of the paws,
• feet,
• tummy,
• behind the ears.

Most often, your ward will react in the same way as a person. Tickling is pleasant for the little rodent; she enjoys the process, while emitting contented squeaks. One gets the full impression that the cute animal is giggling with pleasure. Many of those who keep decorative rats assure that this is the most real smile.

The little creature bursts into joyful laughter not only from the tickling of sensitive areas on the body. Observing the behavior of a rodent in order to establish for certain whether rats can laugh, zoologists made another amazing discovery: animals laugh while playing with their fellow creatures or simply looking at the tricks of others.

According to researchers, a decorative rat is more likely to choose as a marriage partner a relative who knows how to laugh and does it more often than others.

Sounds of communication

When expressing feelings and mood vocally, the tonality and nature of the sounds produced by a rodent are diverse. For example, by chirping, your pet shows that it is scared or feels discomfort. Hissing expresses hostility and aggression. If your pet starts hissing, it is better not to disturb him. It is capable of biting the owner, moreover, this negatively affects the state of his nervous system. The animal will refuse food and may even bite its cage neighbors.

If the little tailed friend is in a good mood, then the new owner, who has previously had no experience in handling decorative rodents, will be able to personally see in practice whether the rats are laughing. Laughter will be an expression of delight and joy from communicating with a person or relatives: characteristic sounds - the pet will squeak or grunt a little.

How to visually recognize that a rat is laughing

Watching decorative rats is great pleasure and entertainment. If someone wants to have such an animal, but is not quite sure about it yet, you can play the multi-platform computer role-playing game “Laughing Rat Skyrim” and finally decide to go to the pet store for a funny live pet.

As some studies have shown, these rodents can express a smile with their ears. If you tickle an animal's tummy or paws, its ears will turn red and become limp. Zoologists explained this phenomenon by the fact that when rats experience positive emotions, they relax, and blood flows intensely to their ears, which is why they noticeably turn red.

Decorative rats, bred for home keeping, are sociable, curious, and affectionate creatures. With proper care of the pet, sincere love and attention to it, the cute animal will often delight the owner in return with a contented, funny smile and cheerful laughter.

Rats are quite funny rodents, and over time they continue to lead the way as pets. What distinguishes them from other rodents is not only their intelligence and cunning, but also their ability to laugh. It’s really funny that such a small animal can show emotions just like its owner. Games with such a pet become twice as interesting, and if you have a whole family, you can spend hours watching their common games, during which they frolic and laugh.

Surely those who have had the opportunity to observe these cute creatures for a long time will talk about the funny sounds that the rodent makes.

The ability of rats to make sounds reminiscent of laughter causes affection and surprise. Let's try to figure out how to bring a smile to your pet's face, and whether rats are really capable of showing joy through laughter or smiles.

Rats and humans are very similar in genome and arrangement of internal organs.

It is an amazing fact that, in addition to humans, conscious laughter is also characteristic of rats.

Causes of laughter in rats

Just like humans, rats react to tickling. This is due to neurons that have been identified in the brain of rats; they are responsible for the reaction to tickling in the form of laughter. Like in humans, they are located in the frontal lobes, which are responsible for mood (thanks to these same zones, the animal senses its body in space).

By tickling the paw (similar to a human foot), belly or behind the ears, you can make the animal smile or laugh. The animal gets pleasure and makes sounds that are very reminiscent of a person’s fervent laughter, and a satisfied grimace appears on its face.

To provoke laughter, you need to gently tickle:

• paws
• abdomen
• behind the ear
• withers

As evidence that rats experience positive emotions, the following is noted: after being tickled, the animal reaches out again to be tickled and looks forward to the owner playing with it again.

The approaching hand of a person during games brings a smile to the face; this is due to the developed intelligence of these rodents, which are able to remember and evaluate cause-and-effect relationships.

But not only by irritating sensitive areas, you can cause a smile and laughter. Studies have been conducted to determine whether rats can actually laugh and smile during positive emotions. The research was successful, and it was found that rats laugh while playing with their relatives, as well as when observing funny situations in the pack.

Surprisingly, scientists say that the female will choose as a partner the individual who laughs and does it more often than other candidates.

It is also believed that young individuals laugh more often. The laughter of rats is compared to the laughter of children; even their tickling zones (neck/withers) are the same.

In addition to laughter, rats can make other sound signals:

1. A prolonged squeak, reminiscent of a scream - if you hear such a sound from your pet, it can indicate severe pain. In this case, inspect your animal for damage; it may have been injured. If there are no visible wounds, contact your veterinarian for help.
2. Hoarse sounds - this is how the animal shows its aggressive attitude and tries to scare away a possible enemy. At these moments it is better not to touch the animal.
3. Hissing or tremor of teeth also indicates a hostile attitude of the animal.
4. Squeaking or short hissing sounds can indicate the animal’s readiness for mating; such sounds can be heard during mating games, between a female and a male.

It is worth paying attention to the following sound signals:

1. Coughing or sneezing - this may indicate your pet has a cold; it is advisable to visit a veterinarian for an examination.
2. Licking the owner's hands indicates a good attitude.
3. Squeaking during touch - the tone of the sound indicates positive emotions, or pain.
4. Grinding of teeth may indicate that the animal is experiencing positive emotions.
5. Wheezing – may indicate difficulty breathing, for example if the animal has a cold. It is much worse if the wheezing occurs due to suffocation, for example if the animal choked on food.

It is very important to observe the pet’s behavior and be able to distinguish their sound signals in order to provide the necessary assistance and help the pet, or, on the contrary, not to touch it if the animal is passionate about its activities.

What if my rat doesn't laugh?

The research also found that when a rat experiences discomfort, such as the smell of a cat or is hungry, the frequency of laughter decreases and the brain reactions responsible for laughter are muted. In moments of danger, the rat also emits a drawn-out squeak; after watching the animal for a while, you can understand that in this way it is trying to communicate about danger.

In addition to the danger of proximity, a depressed mood can reduce the reactions responsible for laughter.

Also, rats cannot produce different laughter, like a person - malicious, mocking, sarcastic, they simply experience joy and show this with the help of laughing sounds, they are not able to experience a wide range of emotions like people.

Other sounds that rats make

The range of rat sounds is varied.

They can show a hostile mood or aggression by hissing, and at these moments it is better not to touch the rat. At these moments he may bite you. Rats become attached to their owners, so this situation can have a negative impact on the pet. Due to stress, a rodent may refuse to eat or show aggression towards its relatives.

Sounds similar to chattering or clicking teeth can also indicate a negative mood.
Sounds similar to squeaks or grunts indicate his cheerful mood, which means the animal is happy. And even if you have no experience communicating with these cute creatures, after watching your pet for a short time you will easily understand that the animal is laughing.

Movements of rats with different emotions

In addition to the sound, during fun you can notice characteristic movements of the ears. To check this, just tickle the animal; at this moment you will notice that the animal’s ears are relaxed and red. In addition to the ears, you can notice that the animal is completely relaxed, this also indicates trust in you. If a stranger tries to tickle a rat, it will most likely show aggression and discontent.

It is impossible to say with certainty that rats have a sense of humor, but the fact that they know how to laugh is a proven fact.

Apart from this, it is safe to say that there is an evolution of joy, which is undoubtedly positive.

It is important not to forget that a rat, like a person, is not always happy to be tickled; it can cause discomfort and the animal may bite to stop these movements. It is also undesirable to pick up a rat, tickle it, or otherwise try to make it laugh if the rodent is busy with its own business, for example, eating or playing.

Animals, like people, may be out of mood or feel unwell; if the animal does not show joy from touching and tickling, it is advisable to continue playing later.

If you devote enough time to your pet, you will notice that the animal comes to meet you and in return shows affection and tenderness. A trusting animal will let you scratch its belly, responding with a smile or a funny laugh.