What can happy rats teach us about human joy? Behavioral neuroscientist Kelly Lambert describes how her team trained rats to drive tiny cars to earn treats — and noticed something surprising about how effort and anticipation affect the brain. The experiment opens new questions about how reward, agency and “behaviorceuticals” might help build resilience and support mental health. (Recorded at TEDxRVA Youth on November 9, 2025
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@AbirDe-m7q
April 19, 2026 at 11:02 am
FIRST
@gavenchyjames6444
April 19, 2026 at 11:04 am
What!!? Rats!!
@asar2252
April 19, 2026 at 11:19 am
When a rat drives better than you.
@bigtimbo4236
April 19, 2026 at 11:26 am
Why spend money to find out if wild rats swim better than lab rats? I can’t think of any way this knowledge could benefit humans or not.
@happykillmore349
April 19, 2026 at 11:34 am
We can explain it to you, but we can’t understand it for you, Skeeter.
@bigtimbo4236
April 19, 2026 at 11:55 am
@happykillmore349 OK, well thanks for absolutely nothing!
@thalisrangel
April 19, 2026 at 11:57 am
@happykillmore349nós vivemos na era da informação mas alguns não conseguem absorver
@imarockstarification
April 19, 2026 at 12:24 pm
As she said, showing that their survival rates were better when they could reasonably hope to be saved.
@technolus5742
April 19, 2026 at 1:08 pm
The amount of times we got unexpected benefits from research without obvious application…..
Yet people still can’t see it 🤦♂️
@NewtonMD
April 19, 2026 at 11:34 am
And then the rat drives better than you
@JohnWick-zn7rf
April 19, 2026 at 12:05 pm
and then rats proceed to genocide people
@RealFatherHowie
April 19, 2026 at 12:10 pm
Do you think in medieval times they put rats in armor and encouraged them to slaughter each other with weapons in a gladiator pit as study?
Romanratiators.
@user-ve9hq8qu7u
April 19, 2026 at 12:41 pm
Holding other people accountable when they are incapable of holding themselves accountable is something more people should do.
@Garlicnaan08
April 19, 2026 at 1:55 pm
Hi
@XAirForcedotcom
April 19, 2026 at 2:29 pm
I don’t care that you taught them to drive but who taught them to run nations😂
@vikaskhanna8559
April 19, 2026 at 2:37 pm
In our daily life, we breathe, but we forget that we’re breathing. The foundation of all mindfulness practice is to bring our attention to our in-breath and out-breath. This is called mindfulness of breathing, or conscious breathing. It’s very simple, but the effect can be very great. In our daily life, although our body is in one place, our mind is often in another. Paying attention to our in-breath and out-breath brings our mind back to our body. And suddenly we are there, fully present in the here and the now.
Conscious breathing is like drinking a glass of cool water. As we breathe in, we really feel the air fi lling our lungs. We don’t need to control our breath. We feel the breath as it actually is. It may be long or short, deep or shallow. In the light of our awareness it will naturally become slower and deeper. Conscious breathing is the key to uniting body and mind and bringing the energy of mindfulness into each moment of our life.
Regardless of our internal weather—our thoughts, emotions, and perceptions—our breathing is always with us like a faithful friend.
Whenever we feel carried away, sunk in a deep emotion, or caught in thoughts about the past or the future, we can return to our breath-ing to collect and anchor our mind.
@tobiashauk4368
April 19, 2026 at 4:41 pm
There is a saying in Germany: Vorfreude ist die schönste Freude. Anticipating joy is the best joy. 🙂
@thunderdragon517
April 19, 2026 at 5:27 pm
I think giving them a cookie would be easier. Wait, that’s for a mouse
@JKwak01
April 19, 2026 at 6:23 pm
Surely Kelly has an academic title of some kind, right? Dr.? Professor? PsyD?
Is TED unable to accredit individuals properly? Or is this lack of acknowledgement something spurned by the notion of being “neutral” and no longer attaching formal labels on specific persons?
For those who are thinking of searching and looking up Kelly’s professional information, she has a Ph.D in Bio-psychology. You can effectively call her “Dr. Kelly Lambert.”
@chasmenear7130
April 19, 2026 at 8:57 pm
Regarding your title here…We did. His name is Trump.🤪