Evoked Response In Cats

Evoked Response In Cats

Evoked Response In Cats

Like watching cat videos? Well, if you're a scientist and you are curious about something, you just go ahead and perform an experiment. No, we're not recommending that you take your little mouser out and do harm to him. But it is interesting and fun to watch cats, which are definitely creatures of habit, do something out of their element. If you grew up with cats, you most certainly put aluminum foil on their feet and watched them slide around the shiny kitchen floor. Never tried that one? Well, it doesn't do them harm and is funny to watch. We'd never advocate animal cruelty! But when scientists set up an experiment, they are looking to measure a cat's evoked response. Then, let's hope they put it on YouTube so we can giggle with our friends.

In one such experiment performed in the 70's, an electroencephalographic machine (ECG) was used to average the evoked response of lights on cats. Scientists used flashing lights on their kitty subjects and correlated their responses to these lights with the resulting behavior. The more aggressive and exploratory cats' evoked response from the lights was that they were pretty much annoyed. The cats with opposite behavioral traits had small increases or decreases of average evoked response amplitude with the flashing lights. Sound like a bunch of mumbo jumbo? Well, this is what scientists get to do all day. Perform experiments, sometimes on animals, and then assume that humans will pretty much act the same.

Nervous to go to the dentist? Then you've probably been given some "laughing gas" or nitrous oxide. Wonder how they figured out this gas could calm us down. Again we can thank those brave kitties and some scientists. The effect of nitrous oxide on the nervous system was studied in cats years before we started getting our molars drilled. Scientists found that excitability was suppressed by administering nitrous oxide to cats. The evoked response of our furry friends showed that the suppression of their sensory functions provided a certain clue to the understanding of the neural workings of our brains as well. And lucky for us, they also discovered that nitrous oxide does not produce deep surgical anesthesia, only a potent analgesia and mellower form of sedation during surgery. Can you just imagine those cats cracking up when they held their breath? Talk about a YouTube hit! Do we really have to remind you "not to try this at home?"

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