There's no indication of their preference for Horde or Alliance but rodents at Princeton University turned out to be quick studies when it comes to virtual worlds.

Princeton researchers interested in studying the neural circuitry of spatial navigation whipped up the marvelous, Terry Gilliam-style rig you see in the video above. Mice with microelectrodes implanted in their brains were restrained on a large trackball, which floated in place on a cushion of pressure like a giant air hockey puck. An optical sensor was positioned on the side of treadmill to track the direction of movement, and a modified version of Quake gave the rodent gamers a virtual reality to run around in. The whole contraption looks like it was stolen from the set of "Brazil." For their part, the mice did none too shabby. The guy in the video even seems to trying to circle strafe.

The study marks the first direct measurements ever made of the cellular activity associated with spatial navigation.

The purpose of the research was to analyze the firing of place cells, which increase their activity when an animal is in a specific location in its environment. In the Quake mod, locations of interest were demarcated by the patterned discs hanging from the ceiling. When the mice ran beneath the a particular disc, the corresponding cell upped its firing rate. Once the mouse had passed, the rate dropped back down to normal.

Place cells are one of four types of cells associated with spatial navigation in the hippocampus and nearby regions of the brain. Other cells measure the size of an environment, encode information about its borders and track the position of the head.

The value of the virtual reality system used in the video is that, since the mice are stationary, cell activity can be recorded while the animals move through complex environments. The system opens up a whole suite of future experiments, where scientists can design custom levels to study the activity of these cells detail.

[via Scienceblogs.com]