Researchers at the University College London who studied the brain patterns of rats found that the rodents “dream up” plans for what they’re going to do in the future, according to the publication Nature World Report.
The recent finding may help explain why some people with damage to the hippocampus are unable to think about the future.
“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,” stated senior author Dr. Hugo Spiers, according to the news outlet The Next Digit.
For the recent study, rats were reportedly hooked up to equipment to monitor their brain activity after being placed in a T-shaped track. One end of the junction was empty while the other reportedly had food visible in it.
The rats weren’t allowed to get to the visible food. They were reportedly then allowed to rest in a separate chamber.
When the rats were given the opportunity to get the food with no barriers, they were able to reach it easily, but analysis of their brain activity showed that they had been to that specific location before in their minds.
This finding reportedly shows that rather than just falling asleep, the rats used their time to relax to plan ahead for the future.
“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. Whether or not rats experience this brain activity as dreams is still unclear, as we would need to ask them to be sure!,” explained Spiers.
