A new study revolved around mice turned zombies with the use of mind control lasers. Researching scientists involved in the study discovered that anyone can switch on and off a mouse's predatory instinct on and off. The process was found to turn the mice into predatory creatures somehow as aggressive as the so-called zombies.
As noted by the Phys Org, several researchers from the Yale University were able to identify two sets of neurons in the mice's brains that can trigger predatory hunting in them. One of which is the amygdala that propels the animal to chase after prey and another the other neuron reportedly gets the mouse to use its jaw and neck muscles to kill. Furthermore, the researchers reveal they found a way to control the urges of the specimens.
Through optogenetics (a method used to tweak the neurons of a mouse for it to respond to laser light), the team was able to touch the sets of neurons that can turn on the "kill mode" among the mice. To confirm, the researchers turned off the laser and discovered that the mice return to their regular behavior. It is then when the laser was turned on that the mice act like aggressive zombies.
According to Popular Science, the researchers saw how the mice turned zombies chase and bite practically anything placed before them including the inanimate objects like bottle caps or wooden sticks. The lead investigator Ivan de Araujo of the Yale University School of Medicine said, "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 also said that predatory hunting or the jaw movement and biting has a connection to sensory inputs like the laser used in the study.
The researchers then tried to trigger one neuron at a time. Following this, the scientists first blocked the neuron assigned to pursue and found that the mice still goes aggressive although they move a bit slower. When the neuron assigned for the jaw and neck activities, on the other hand, were blocked, the mice turned zombies seemed to have lost their strength by 50 percent, thus killing more slowly.
