Mice Playing VR Games Reveal Secrets of Long-Term Memory

While the metaverse seems to be imploding in places like (ironically enough) Meta, it seems as though it might be gaining steam from an unexpected user base: mice. Or, at least, laboratory mice being used in scientific experiments.

In a new study published Thursday in the journal Cell, neuroscientists from Rockefeller University in New York trained a group of mice how to play VR games in order to study their memory. Not only were the creatures able to learn how to successfully play, but their mad gaming skills might have also revealed the ways in which long-term memory is stored in the brain.

Unfortunately, the mice didn’t play any games popular with other animals like Doom or Pokemon. Instead, the study’s authors created a digital maze for the creatures to navigate. Instead of the mice being forced to wear a dorky miniaturized headset a la Meta’s Oculus, the VR maze was projected on a screen in front of the mice while they ran around on a styrofoam ball.

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