Forget scratch and sniff. For rodents, it’s squeak and sniff.
Researchers say rats and mice might be enhancing their strong sense of smell ꧟by using soun🔯ds unable to be detected by the human ear.
“It almost seems like magic,” researcher Eduardo Mercado III said in accompanying the release of published in “Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews.”
“It’s so far off the scale of what we know that it’s like we’re observing ‘Jedi’ rats,” he added, referencing the famous “Star Wars” characters known for their enhanced sense of all that is around them through the force.
Accor🍨ding to the Mercado, rodents may use ultrasonic vocalizations, or USVs, which occur at higher frequencies than humans can hear.👍
These vocalizations may affect how rodents smell by “clustering inhaled odorants”
Ultimately, Mercardo asserts, that the cheese-eaters could “coordinate sniffing with sound production” to “enhance reception of pheromones.”
“This phenomenon has never been observed before, or I believe even suspected, in any animal,” Mercad✤o proclaimed.
“They’re creating new pathways of informaജtion by manipulating their environment and controlling the molecular interactions of p♋articles around them.”
Mercado began as a padawa🔯n learner studying the songs of humpback whales and later identified a unique inconsistency in the vocals of rats after reviewing cross-research on the marine mammal.
The new 🌟stud🥀y could ultimately have impacts on medical research.
Researching rat frequencies can become a model for treating communicative-related illnesses like Parkinson’s, autism, schizophrenia, anxiety, and depression, according to Mercado and his co-author, Jessica Zhou.
“R🐟odents are at the forefront of biological research,” Zhou said. “Rodents, especially rats and mice, are the unsung heroes of the scientific world.”
