New mind controlling apparatus turns mice into killing machines

By flipping a switch, scientists have discovered a method to insight aggressive predator-like behaviour in a rodent known to shy away from conflict.

A team of Scientists from the University of Yale -- led by Ivan de Araujo, an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the Yale University School of Medicine -- have figured out a method to turn on the dormant predator instincts in mice. 

To achieve this unusual behaviour, the team used a technique known as optogenetics. The method involves using a light stimulus to manipulate living cells. In this case, scientists were able to initiate aggressive behaviour in mice by controlling a duo of neurons in the rodent’s brain. It was observed that the mice fiercely attacked inanimate objects -- like toys and bottle caps -- in the same manner as they would attack crickets.

“They pursue the prey [a live cricket] faster, and they are more capable of capturing and killing it,” said De Araujo.

Much like the ‘Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’, scientist discover that they can turn a demure lab mouse into a tiny whirlwind of death. But instead of using an unstable concoction to achieve the result, a pair of neurons were activated by a light stimulus in a part of the brain associated with motivation and emotion, called the amygdala. The scientists noticed distinctive hunting movements especially observed in the jaw and neck muscles while the light stimulus was turned on. The researchers also noticed that hunger plays an important role predatory behavior. Hungrier mice more actively attacked prey while the light stimulus was turned on during the experiment. However, the mice did not attack other mice which is every unusual, noted the scientists. The research is detailed in a paper published in the journal Cell.

"There must be some primordial subcortical pathway that connects sensory input to the movement of the jaw and the biting," said de Araujo.

"We'd turn the laser on and they'd jump on an object, hold it with their paws and intensively bite it as if they were trying to capture and kill it," he added.