Rats Dream About Better Future In Their Dreams

Sleeping rats dream of places they wish to go, according to a new study.

Researchers monitored rats' brain activity and noted that activity of brain cells specialized in navigation which suggested that when they were resting, the rats simulated walking to and from food that they had been unable to reach.

"During exploration, mammals rapidly form a map of the environment in their hippocampus. During sleep or rest, the hippocampus replays journeys through this map which may help strengthen the memory. It has been speculated that such replay might form the content of dreams," Senior author of the study, Dr Hugo Spiers explained.

"Whether or not rats experience this brain activity as dreams is still unclear, as we would need to ask them to be sure!"

"Our new results show that during rest the hippocampus also constructs fragments of a future yet to happen. Because the rat and human hippocampus are similar, this may explain why patients with damage to their hippocampus struggle to imagine future events."

Findings of the study may help explain why some people with damage to a region of the brain called the hippocampus are unable to imagine the future.

"What's really interesting is that the hippocampus is normally thought of as being important for memory, with place cells storing details about locations you've visited," added co-lead author Dr Freyja ólafsdóttir. "What's surprising here is that we see the hippocampus planning for the future, actually rehearsing totally novel journeys that the animals need to take in order to reach the food."

The finding is a clear indication that the ability to imaging future events is not only a human ability.