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The Lab Rat Chronicles: A Neuroscientist Reveals Life Lessons from the Planet's Most Successful Mammals
Discover What Rodents Know About the Good Life
What can the common laboratory rat tell us about being human? According to behavioral neuroscientist Kelly Lambert, a whole lot. Her twenty- five-year career conducting experiments that involve rats has led her to a surprising conclusion: Through their adaptive strategies and good habits, these unassuming little animals can teach us some essential lessons about how we, as humans, can lead successful lives. From emotional resilience and a strong work ethic to effective parenting and staying healthy, the lab rat is an unlikely but powerful role model for us all.
This is a surprising and engaging guided tour into the sophisticated mental, emotional, and behavioral worlds of these frequently maligned and often misunderstood little creatures.
What can the common laboratory rat tell us about being human? According to behavioral neuroscientist Kelly Lambert, a whole lot. Her twenty- five-year career conducting experiments that involve rats has led her to a surprising conclusion: Through their adaptive strategies and good habits, these unassuming little animals can teach us some essential lessons about how we, as humans, can lead successful lives. From emotional resilience and a strong work ethic to effective parenting and staying healthy, the lab rat is an unlikely but powerful role model for us all.
This is a surprising and engaging guided tour into the sophisticated mental, emotional, and behavioral worlds of these frequently maligned and often misunderstood little creatures.
320 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 2011
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204 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
October 22, 2011
This book, written by a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Randolph-Macon College in Virginia, relates how her twenty-five years of research using lab rats has led to conclusions about human behavior. Does this sound dry to you? Well, let me add that Dr. Lambert has also won teaching awards, and she uses her skills to make this a thoroughly engaging and often humorous foray into the lab. She obviously has great respect and admiration for the little rodents. Toward the end of the book, she recounts a visit to an inner city alley to view rats in the wild. The ways in which she connects what she has learned of rat behavior to human behavior are fascinating. Many anecdotes about rats enliven the text, so that, by the end of the book, you too may feel some affection and admiration for these resilient mammals. Of course, you may also feel a twinge of unease when you learn of how rats have adapted to living alongside humans and how clever they are at avoiding human means to trap, poison, or otherwise 'do them in'. The true point of her book,though, is not to learn about rats, but to make useful discoveries about human behavior. At the end of the book, she lists some key points researchers have learned from studying rats (and here I will quote her exactly):
1) challenging and complex environments build better brains 2) practice may not make perfect, but it transforms brains 3) relevant and rewarding work provides an emotional lift 4)healthy lifestyles are nature's best medicine 5)day-to-day coping strategies are essential for avoiding stress-related diseases 6)social networks define neural networks 7)cleanliness promotes healthy bodies and minds 8)physical activity promotes brain growth 9)the races we run should have clear destinations 10) when it comes to aggression, less is better 11) psychological stress is toxic 12) nature's neurochemicals represent the best pharmacological treatments 13)family trees have deep roots and deserve our respect.
1) challenging and complex environments build better brains 2) practice may not make perfect, but it transforms brains 3) relevant and rewarding work provides an emotional lift 4)healthy lifestyles are nature's best medicine 5)day-to-day coping strategies are essential for avoiding stress-related diseases 6)social networks define neural networks 7)cleanliness promotes healthy bodies and minds 8)physical activity promotes brain growth 9)the races we run should have clear destinations 10) when it comes to aggression, less is better 11) psychological stress is toxic 12) nature's neurochemicals represent the best pharmacological treatments 13)family trees have deep roots and deserve our respect.
January 30, 2015
Ethics; it's a big word. Not in this book though; predictably, it doesn't even come up.
On another note, if this is a snapshot of the invasive animal research at large, then how do I donate to the ALF?! Bizarre stuff.
On another note, Lambert trivializes the seriousness of such endeavors in a callous, monstrous way.
Gross.
On another note, if this is a snapshot of the invasive animal research at large, then how do I donate to the ALF?! Bizarre stuff.
On another note, Lambert trivializes the seriousness of such endeavors in a callous, monstrous way.
Gross.
August 24, 2011
This is an excellent book! Well written, thoughtful and humorous, informative but not overly technical. It's a fascinating glimpse of neurobiological research and simultaneously of the resilience of rodents, specifically of rats. Fabulous!
January 11, 2024
My first completed for the year!
There was so many interesting facts, I feel like I need to read it again to absorb it all.
There was so many interesting facts, I feel like I need to read it again to absorb it all.
April 3, 2025
Very clearly written for easy consumption by general audiences. Great reminders for expert researchers and easily digestible information for those outside the research community.
May 16, 2014
This book was an ok introduction to science in general and to behavioral neuroscience in particular. It did a good job of describing how hypotheses are generated, how experiments are done, the importance of controls, etc. It also did a great job of showing the author's enthusiasm for science. But I kind of felt like the book didn't really know what audience it was aiming towards, or that it needed a stronger focus on theme.
Focus: The book focused a LOT on the individual experiments, with detailed descriptions of each and then a rundown of what the experiment taught the researchers. The problem for me was that this description, though accurate and necessary, was often kind of boring (I'm a scientist, so I read this sort of thing a lot.) The actual interesting part--how these studies interact with what we know in humans--felt kind of like an afterthought.
Tone: Also, the author's tone grated sometimes. She was obviously excited by the science, but as another reader noted, she could get a little condescending toward an audience that was obviously interested enough in science to pick up a book with "neuroscientist" in the title. Likely they know that they're going to have to pick up some lingo and don't need to be reassured that it "won't get too bad, hang in there!" Also, when discussing human implications, she sometimes sounded flippant "Perhaps we should think twice about packing workers into cubicles all day!" instead of authoritative.
Depth: I felt that the author could have explored the theme of how these studies linked to human behavior more thoroughly. In some places, she was obviously oversimplifying when describing how one experiment suggests that we should think twice about some superficial aspect of human culture. The focus on the rodent studies to the exclusion of real-world implications might have been justified, since one has to be careful about extrapolating from those studies, but at the same time...it made it sound like she just wanted to geek out about the rats rather than really delving into how the science related to everyday life. The theme in the title is difficult to pull off (not over-reaching nor oversimplifying the science discussed), and I felt that the author missed the mark a bit.
Focus: The book focused a LOT on the individual experiments, with detailed descriptions of each and then a rundown of what the experiment taught the researchers. The problem for me was that this description, though accurate and necessary, was often kind of boring (I'm a scientist, so I read this sort of thing a lot.) The actual interesting part--how these studies interact with what we know in humans--felt kind of like an afterthought.
Tone: Also, the author's tone grated sometimes. She was obviously excited by the science, but as another reader noted, she could get a little condescending toward an audience that was obviously interested enough in science to pick up a book with "neuroscientist" in the title. Likely they know that they're going to have to pick up some lingo and don't need to be reassured that it "won't get too bad, hang in there!" Also, when discussing human implications, she sometimes sounded flippant "Perhaps we should think twice about packing workers into cubicles all day!" instead of authoritative.
Depth: I felt that the author could have explored the theme of how these studies linked to human behavior more thoroughly. In some places, she was obviously oversimplifying when describing how one experiment suggests that we should think twice about some superficial aspect of human culture. The focus on the rodent studies to the exclusion of real-world implications might have been justified, since one has to be careful about extrapolating from those studies, but at the same time...it made it sound like she just wanted to geek out about the rats rather than really delving into how the science related to everyday life. The theme in the title is difficult to pull off (not over-reaching nor oversimplifying the science discussed), and I felt that the author missed the mark a bit.
January 5, 2015
Fascinating stuff here. Lambert has learned an amazing about of stuff from her lab rats (and some wild ones) and shares a great lot of that information here. She gets just in depth enough to cover the topics at hand without bogging the reader down, and does so in a very conversational way, making for a pretty easy read. Recommended.
May 18, 2013
Summary of the last century or so of what we have learned from the laboratory rat such as food habits, family life, work ethic, relationship and dating, etc. that can be applied somewhat to our society.
June 23, 2012
Excellent book for amator scientists and I have learned soo much from it
September 7, 2014
A must read for anyone who can read
August 13, 2014
I just couldn't tolerate the chatty style.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews