The science-master featured in the cartoon is striving to boost Hamster intellegence. It has been a while since I looked into the current literature on Sooped up super smart rodents. So I had a wee look see.
In 2000 one of the earlier strains of transgenic knock-in mice was announced. These animals expressed extra neurotransmitter receptors in the the hippocampal brain region. This receptor, the NMDA subunit is special in that it is only activated glutamate in situations where the cell is already stimulated and when I does open a soup of high Calcium fluid enters. Calcium influx from this is the "go-switch" for making permanent new connections. Turns out these mice were twice as good at learning tasks than their litter mates. They were media darlings and were called "Doogie mice". This advantage is maintained over the entire lifespan (about 400 days).
At the end of last year a new contender stepped up Hobbie-J. This is one of the latest and greatest strains of transgenic rats (much harder to engineer rats than mice). Hobbie-J rats also overexpress NMDA receptors and are also super smart.
While these rodents are engineered nerds their is also a strain of engineered jocks. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcXuKU_kfww This video is fantastic, they are strong, fitter, faster and live longer. They are also more aggressive.These models have resulted in developments toward the treatment of dementia and sarcopenia (the progressive loss of muscle bulk which occurs in older people) and are not a mere curiosity.
Go Rodents!
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