Mutant mice do not feel the need for their mother

2004/09/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Osasuna

Newborn mice need their mother a lot because they are born blind, deaf and hungry. So if the mother is not start screaming. However, during research they discover that without the brain receptor of morphine the mice do not miss their mother.

To reach this conclusion, researchers have created by mutation mice without morphine receptor, comparing their behavior with the most common mouse. Once taken out of their nest and taken to a new nest, the common eight-day mice scream constantly. If instead of being a completely new nest, it leads to a maternal smell, they make much less screams.

Mutated mice do not produce screams or completely new nests or in odor nests. But it is not because they have lost the ability to react or smell: with menacing male mice around them they scare more than normal mice.

Researchers believe that research can help resolve affective disorders and drug addictions.