• Question: Why rats above other mammals such monkeys considering they have closer similarities to human beings?

    Asked by anon-180743 to Viren, Sam, Noel, Amy on 12 Jun 2018. This question was also asked by anon-180745, anon-180493.
    • Photo: Sam Burton

      Sam Burton answered on 12 Jun 2018:

      Great question, I’m no expert in this I’ve got to say. But from what I know a large part of it comes down to genetics. Rats breed quite quickly, so allow for a vast supply of potential tests that can be ran. With this quick rate of breeding, they can selectively manipulate which genes are kept by the rats. Through the selection of genes they can gain a similar genetic make up to humans, making them comparable, to an extent. I’ve read somewhere that they have similar brain structure to humans as well.

      I think another part of it is they’re cheap and easy to house, a potential ethical problem. If you think about looking after monkeys, its a lot more difficult than rats.

      Hope that answers your question.

    • Photo: Amy Warnock

      Amy Warnock answered on 14 Jun 2018:

      Sam has done a fantastic job at answering this question! Another benefit of using rats is that a lot of their brain circuitry is actually very similar to that of humans so research can be applied to humans quite easily – so for example the brain circuits that control what we eat are very, very similar in humans and rats. Rats are also very intelligent which makes them ideal for studies into behaviour (although there are obviously some differences in the behaviour of rats and humans!)

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