Behavioural Despair Test – Porsolt Test
Animal testing is a contentious issue at the best of times, but imagine we tetsed animals in the hope that their reactions could be extrapolated to determine a human response. That way instead of drowning ex-nazis or street kids to prove a point we could figure out what would happen by reading the actions of small creatures with whom we share few characteristics in common. Sounds ideal.
How?
There appear to be two defined methods to subdue the will of your chosen rodents. The test defined on that venerable repository of unimpeachable information, Wikipedia, is as follows:
‘Animals are subjected to two trials during which they are forced to swim in an acrylic glass cylinder filled with water, and from which they cannot escape. The first trial lasts 15 minutes. Then, after 24-hours, a second trial is performed that lasts 5 minutes. The time that the test animal spends without moving in the second trial is measured. This immobility time is decreased by antidepressants.’
In 1957 Dr Curt P Richter added his riff on the theme, finding that when rats are placed into a highly stressful swimming situation will frequently die very quickly. He put two sets of rats into water. The untouched control rats drowned in despair quite quickly. In the other tank, the venerable doctor ‘saved’ half the rats, those that were left swam in hope for 3 days. They eventually drowned, exhausted, presumably to the taunts and laughter of the doctor and his immediate scientific peers.
What Does it Tell Us?
It tells us animals, and by inference humans, are willing to try harder for something they feel is achievable. It also tells us that we have a global problem of exterminators posing as scientists.
Of course, if the experiment was to find the best way of drowning rats, then the best option would have been to cut off their whiskers. This seemingly causes them to give up the ghost. Or you could crush their cute little heads with a brick.
An important mockup image so you can see what a rat in a tube looks like.
Where Do I Sign Up?
You can purchase your own kit here. You can find rats anywhere according to the oft-stated theories of ‘you are never more than X feet or metres from a rat’. If you really want to go all out why not try a large dog or a horse?
Bibliography
Lance Armstrong – Tour de Force, Daniel Coyle, Harper, 2005
Wikipedia tells it like it is
This post is tagged cruelty, depression, despair, drowning, experiments, hope, porsolt, psychology, rats, rodents, Science
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