Do you consider yourself a risk-taker? Do you seek out new sensations? Are you a rat?
July 19th, 2008 by admin
If you answered yes to these questions, Florida Atlantic University needs you for a research study that is due to begin this summer. (Did we mention that most likely you will be killed at the end of the study?)
The Animal Rights Foundation of Florida is opposed to the use of animals in research and testing primarily for ethical reasons. But often we learn of research projects that seem scientifically misguided (to put it nicely) and a waste of resources. This week the Palm Beach Post reported on a two-year, $820,000 grant that FAU received from the Florida Department of Health to study risk-taking, nicotine-addicted rats.
Researchers at Florida Atlantic University have concluded that rats who explore a new environment, such as a cage of a different size or shape, are more likely to become addicted to nicotine than rats who are less adventurous. What does this mean? The researchers believe that whatever is going on in the brains of these “risk-taking” rats can help in the development of treatments for nicotine addiction. If you’re scratching your head, don’t worry. We don’t understand it either.
Researchers love to create animal models of human conditions. Smoking presents a challenge because this uniquely human behavior is motivated by a complex mix of genetic and environmental factors. We are not convinced that a rat who became addicted by ingesting a solution of water mixed with nicotine is a good model for studying the disease of addiction in humans. Even if it is true that risk-taking has something to do with why people begin smoking cigarettes or why it is so difficult for some people to break their smoking addiction, there is no way to know if treatments developed in rats will have any relevance to humans until they try the drug or therapy in humans- which leads to the question, why not begin the study in humans?