Vol.34 Jerry never escapes

Do you know a cartoon film "Tom and Jerry?"
Jerry is always escaping from Tom.




But what makes Jerry escape?
Because Jerry has experience that Tom will eat or attack him?
So he recognizes Tom as a natural enemy?


When mouse begin to run away from cats?
Previously, scientists thought mouse comes to obtain this action aginst natural enemies by learning.


But recent study showed a new theory.
They used 2 mouse; one is normal one, and the other is mice without olfactory cells in the nose.
Of course, both of them have never met cats.
These mouse were made to meet in front of a cat.


As a result, the normal one ran away from the cat though the mice had never met cats.
On the other hand, olfactory-removed mice did not escape.
Furthermore, the mice was not afraid at all of the cat even the cat approached the mice.



This experiment suggests that mouse are afraid of cats not because of their experience, but smell.
And this escape responding are programmed by nature.


You can see more detail on the web by Tokyo Univ.





* その少年は、自分が悪魔に食べられてしまうと恐れていた。
The young child was afraid that devils would eat him.

生まれつき
by nature

果物と野菜の栄養価が50年前に比べて減少していることが最近明らかになりました。
It has recently been revealed that fruits and vegetables have lower nutritional values than 50 years ago

# 鼻の嗅細胞
olfactory cells in the nose

逃避反応
escape responding /


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ネズミがネコを怖がるのは学習ではなく、匂いであるという新説、
実に興味深い論文です。
人間でも生理的に嫌いな人を避けてしまうのは、
あらかじめ遺伝的にプログラミングされているからなのでしょうか？（笑）

nikukyu