Rats might have imagination.
The animals that survived the asteroid impact that killed dinosaurs required abstract thinking to save energy in nuclear winter.
When does the ability for abstract thinking begin to advance? Did some dinosaurs have that ability? And do other species have that useful skill, that they can simulate actions before they move their body? That ability saves energy. And makes life easier. The thing is that ability helps to find food in a fast-changing environment. The nuclear winter that followed the meteor impact that ended the Jurassic period was the deadliest challenge for animals.
The tsunami and pressure effect with heat were destructive. But the worst things were coming. The meteorite that hit Yucatan raised silicone clouds to the atmosphere and caused burning in large forest areas. Animals that can predict where they could find food and same time save energy could survive in that deadly frozen hell, where animals first face the deadly silicone cloud that fills their lungs. Then they must learn where they can find food without digging "empty holes". The empty hole where there is no food causes energy loss. And that thing could kill those animals.
The purpose of imagination or abstract thinking is to save energy.
Other animal's imagination is not researched before. Imagination means the ability to make simulations in the mind. Another term for imagination is abstract thinking and the ability to connect memory particles to another, virtual form. The reason researchers can only now research other species' ability to abstract thinking is that. This research requires the most modern instruments that the system can model brain waves from deeper brain structures.
Modern AI-based analyzation tools can decode the EEG that the modern sensors deliver. The problem with imagination and dream analysis is that those processes happen under the outer shell of the brain. But maybe modern nanotechnology makes it possible to analyze electric signals that travel in the inner brain structures.
The reason why brain structures are called as name "brain core" is that each of those brain layers is an "independent structure". Brain waves travel vertically between the most out brain shell or most out brain core and the most in brain core. The signal reflection from the most out brain shell that makes the signal travel twice through the white brain structures brings those signals into awareness. But there are also horizontal brain waves that travel in each layer but they cannot reach consciousness.
"Researchers have demonstrated that rats, through a novel brain-machine interface and virtual reality system, can activate hippocampal activity patterns to imagine and navigate to locations, similar to human imagination. This finding reveals animals’ ability to voluntarily control their thoughts and could advance the study of memory and the development of prosthetic devices". (ScitechDaily.com/Like Humans – Scientists Discover That Rats Have an Imagination)
The thing that brings some process into consciousness is interesting. Many observations never reach awareness. But things like imagination or "abstract thinking" reach the awareness. The question is: why those processes are not limited to nighttime? We can control our imagination. that is an important tool when we produce something. Imagination is the simulation that allows us to plan our work before we start physical work. And that saves energy.
But the fact is, that we always thought that imagination and the ability to abstract thinking is limited only for humans. The thing that the rats can have imagination too makes them same way very interesting animals. The imagination helps rats to survive in the modern changing world and adapt to the new environment. And we know that this thing doesn't make rats more handsome neighbors than they are.
AI and other things like genetic analysis might open the new world to the animal's behavior. The interesting question is when that ability to abstract thinking started to advance? Maybe some dinosaurs could preplan their actions. And the things like the burial site of Homo naledi, one of the great apes in the human family tree tell that abstract thinking and culture started to advance a long time before Homo sapiens.
Homo sapiens didn't make the oldest burial site in the world. The species behind that was Homo naledi. One of the great apes.
The rat's imagination causes another thought. How many species have imagination? Imagination is the thing that is required for technology and civilization. The oldest known burial site tells that the human ancestors had imagination. The burial site tells that this human ancestor had some kind of ceremony that is one of the most interesting things in history. The ceremony can explain why that Homo naledi created the burial site. Ceremonies are not uncommon things in nature.
But the burial ceremony could mean that those great apes had some kind of spiritual context in their life. The spiritual burial rituals made the group stronger. Artifacts like fireplaces and old burial sites cause the question, of when civilization or humans started to rise.
And the same way we can say that other animals like birds can have the ability to think abstractions and plan their hunting. And did some dinosaurs also have an ability to abstract thinking? Abstract thinking doesn't mean that creatures can solve mathematical algorithms. But it can preplan its actions without moving the body. That ability is useful for all animals, as they can search for food and escape at the right time.
https://www.sciencealert.com/the-oldest-known-burial-site-in-the-world-wasnt-made-by-our-species
https://scitechdaily.com/deadly-dust-what-really-killed-the-dinosaurs-after-the-asteroid-impact/
https://scitechdaily.com/like-humans-scientists-discover-that-rats-have-an-imagination/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_history
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_evolution
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