Lieu 1

Daniel Lieu
Dr. Haas
Writing 39C
April 24, 2016
Rat Grief Literature Review [HCP]
Beginning in the 1950s Through the years, scientists have spent countless hours
researching and studying animals rat cognition and mental ability, ultimately leading to
developments on the similarities and differences to humans. 20 years later In the more
recent years, one field of study that is more heavily emphasized is the animal grief.
Scientists have been asking whether or not animals, like rats, go through this same
phenomenon like humans, how grief functions in animals in comparison to humans, what
they grieve about, and much more. The results and observations throughout the past years
that to groundbreaking conclusions in the study of regarding rat grief will be discussed in
this literature review, in addition to the growing popularity of scientists who made these
discoveries, like Dr. Sharon Ackerman, Dr. Hans Selve, and Pankseep.
Towards the beginning of developments regarding the brain, scientists began
asking questions like, How do animals grieve? which led to one of the first big
publications regarding how animals grieve. On January 1, 1984, the Committee for the
Study of Health Consequences of Stress and Bereavement published on the National
Academy of Science, Bereavement: Reactions, Consequences, and Care, an extremely
intricate book with the findings of over 100 scientists who study grief. Studies on humans
in terms of brain developments were not widely done, but rather the primary means of
research were monkeys, dogs, and most commonly, rats. Rats played a key role in

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scientific study due to the physiological and biological resemblance to humans (National
Cancer Institute). In the first developments of grief in animals, scientists from The
Psychosomatic Medicine Research Group in 1983 made one of the biggest observations
an important observation in rat grief, and overall, animal grief. Sharon Ackerman, a
former researcher on proteins folding, and current professor at Wayne State University
School of Medicine, led the research group. Her team took two groups: a control group
and an experimental group. The control groups were adult parent rats that bred young
rats. The infants were allowed to remain with the parents throughout the entire life
development. The experimental group differed in the sense that the infants were allowed
to be with the parents for x amount of days, and then were separated and their behavior
was analyzed. The infant rats separated from their parents were observed to suffer from a
lower weakened immune competence and even appeared to be insomniac with a
reduction in REM (Rapid Eye Movement) cycle when they are able to sleep (Institute of
Medicine Committee). What the scientists observed led them to believe that animals may
have the capability and natural reaction to grieve as humans do. The infant rats separated
from their parents were observed to suffer from a lower immune competence and even
appeared to be insomniac with a reduction in REM (Rapid Eye Movement) cycle when
they are able to sleep (Institute of Medicine Committee). Dr. Ackerman and her research
group essentially pioneered one of the biggest developments in the study of animal grief
through her observations of rats.
While it may seem that rats were the primary means of studying grief, humans
were actually studied for years prior to the understanding that rats were physiologically
and biologically similar. Understanding the results during human testing is critical to

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understanding how scientists, taking the known data from human grief studies and the
observations from Dr. Ackermans group, were able to conclude that rats and other
animals go through grief. The biggest development for human study on grief was made
by Hans Selye, a neurophysiologist who specifically focused on grief and stress. He was
a medical doctor, Ph.D, doctorate of science, and professor and director of the Institut de
Medcine et de Chirurgie experimentales in at the University of Montreal, Canada. His
conclusions regarding hormones in humans were later found in rats, which allowed us to
really understand rats at a deeper level since the hormone was the same. Dr. Selye took
parents who had terminally ill children and observed them up until the death of their
child. At the immediate death, she noticed that the body released a specific chemical
hormone that was not released prior to experiencing this grief. She called the hormone
adrenocorticotrophin (ACTH), which when released, caused the body to produce
cortisone to counter the effect of ACTH. As the grief progresses in the participants life,
he noted that cortisone continued to be produced in the blood and exceeded normal levels
by ten fold. When cortisone is released, he compared it to the normal human and found
that it caused the immune system to be defective by shutting off the white blood cells
necessary to fight infection (Selve 476). These observations that led to the conclusion by
Dr. Selve allowed our understanding of grief to not only be observed on a physical level,
but now also on a microscopic and biological level.
Many years after the shift to rats began to be used for biological testing, scientists
looked at the research regarding ACTH levels and cortisone in humans linked to grief,
and compared it to rats discovering were not too different from our animal counterpart.
Understanding that we have certain hormones that are excreted when we experience grief

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was the first precursor to understanding if animals had it as well. As a result, Delia M.
Vazquez, a neuroscientist and professor of Pediatrics and Psychiatry at the Center of
Human Growth and Development drove the current understanding of rat grief in 1997
through her research of radiolabeled ACTH. Upon finding a way to radiolabel ACTH
with a fluorescence to be analyzed, she took infant and adult rats to compare their levels
of ACTH released when separated. At a young age, if the rat is separated, there is a
gradual release of ACTH and cortisol is released as a response, a phenomenon very
similar to humans reaction to grief. Throughout the 10 day experiment, it was observed
that there was a prolonged ACTH elevation, which is also similar. The difference is that
humans experience a spike in ACTH and cortisol, while rats experienced a gradual
release, though both were observed to be caused by a direct event leading to stress and
grief (Vzquez 1). Her conclusions led to her research publication by the Journal of
Neuroendocrinology discussing the similar effects of grief in rats to humans.
The development for rat grief didnt just stop at understanding that they do grieve,
but extended beyond the scope of just grief and into new horizons within that topic,
like depression and the brains emotional networks. A recent scientist who is most notable
for his most recent developments on depression is named Jaak Pankseep, a neuroscientist,
psychobiologist, and chairman for the Animal Well-Being Science for the Department of
Veterinary and Comparative Anatomy, Pharmacology, and Physiology at Washington
State Universitys Veterinarian School. His primary research in 2010, where he published
Affective neuroscience of the emotional BrainMind led to many accepted conclusions
regarding depression, a grief that extends beyond normal grief, but rather involves
emotional networks that are affected. He noted that while grief is a result of hormonal

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changes in the body, depression is rather a sustained dysphoria with a sustained hormonal
change that did not revert back to a normal state (Panksepp 1). How were these
conclusions reached? Through studying the effects of animal hormonal changes and
effects, but more specifically in rats. The ability for rats to be able to experience these
hormonal changes being sustained in their system in addition to humans experiencing the
same effects during depression simply shows that rats do experience grief, and not just
experience grief in their own unique way, but in a way that has a striking resemblance to
the way that humans experience grief.
Lastly, one thing that is associated with rat grief is pain. Both rats and humans
have nerve endings that are stimulated by pain in the tissues, like cutting, crushing, or
burning, called nociceptors. In 1906, a scientist named Dr. Sherrington established
noriceptors in humans, which led to further restrictions on human testing that involve any
noriceptor nerves (National Research Council). In 2013, scientists from the University of
Sao Paulo in Brazil published their findings of noriceptor stimuli regarding rats that
resulted in painful experiences in the nerves of rats (Sanada S56).
The five large research developments regarding rat mourning and their ability to
mourn has led many begin comparing and contrasting the true differences and similarities
to humans beyond the physiological observations. Before the 1900s, many believed that
rats and humans differed to the furthest extent based off of physiological observations
that they do not experience emotions and are autonomous. However in the first large
publication, Bereavement: Reactions, Consequences, and Care, that contains a
compilation of the scientific works over the years has led many to believe otherwise. Dr.
Ackerman and her research group pioneered the way into changing the perception of rats

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in regards to not experiencing grief when rats separated from their parents as a newborn
suffered from an impact REM sleep cycle in addition to a weakened immune system. Dr.
Hans Selve furthered the developments of Dr. Ackerman through his research on human
stress and grief in humans by studying rats. He observed that rats released
adrenocorticotrophin (ACTH), while humans also do as well. This furthered in closing
the gap between human and rat grief, helping to allow scientists to conclude rats do
experience grief.
The developments are eventually leading to the conclusion that rats do experience
grief, but does it also change the way that scientists are thinking about using rats to test in
the laboratory? The only governing law regarding the use of animals in research and
testing in the Animal Welfare Act published in 1966 by the US Department of
Agriculture, which has not changed since (www.gpo.gov). However since the time that is
has been published, there were many extremely large developments in the understanding
that animals are very similar to humans in regards to how both experience grief,
especially in the development of the ACTH hormone. In comparison, human subjects for
experimental testing is protected by the US Department of Health & Human Services,
stating that each human subject has to be subjected to a review by the Institutional
Review Board and even obtain informed consent (www.hhs.gov). The recent
developments regarding rats similarity, not only physiologically in anatomy, but also
biologically through emotional triggers for grief should lead to a reconsideration of the
old 1966 Animal Welfare Act.
As one can see, there have been many extremely important developments
regarding rat grief. Scientists are on the verge of being able to conclude unanimously that

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rats do experience grief based off the science of Dr. Ackerman, Dr. Hans Selve, and the
giant publication by the Committee for the Study of Health Consequences of Stress and
Bereavement summarizing the recent findings in the past century regarding rat grief. By
doing so, it questions the moral of using animals for testing, especially when looking at
the fact publications for rat grief were in majority, made after the establishment of the
Animal Welfare Act.

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Bibliography
"Animal Welfare Act." Animal Welfare Act. US. Department of Agriculture. Web. 24
Apr. 2016.
Committee on Recognition and Alleviation of Pain in Laboratory Animals, Institute For
Laboratory Animal
Research, Division on Earth and Life Studies, and
National Research Council. Recognition and Alleviation of Pain in Laboratory
Animals. National Academies, 2009. Print.
"Information on Protection of Human Subjects in Research Funded or Regulated by U.S.
Government." HHS.gov. US Department of Human & Health Services. Web. 24
Apr. 2016.
Panksepp, Jaak. "Affective Reflections and Refractions within the BrainMind." NEJP
Netherlands Journal of Psychology 64.4 (2008): 128-31. Print.
"Research Uses for Rats ." Research Uses for Rats . National Cancer Institute. Web.
24 Apr. 2016.
Sanada, L., K. Sato, E. Carmo, N. Machado, K. Sluka, and V. Fazan. "Noxious Stimuli in
the Neonatal Period in Rats Can Cause Important Peripheral Nervous System
Alterations That Persist on Adults in a Sex-dependent Manner." The Journal of
Pain 14.4 (2013). Web. 24 Apr. 2016.
Selye, Hans. The Physiology and Pathology of Exposure to Stress; a Treatise Based on
the Concepts of the General-adaptation-syndrome and the Diseases of
Adaptation. Montreal: Acta, 1950. Print.
Vzquez, Delia M., Mara I. Morano, and Huda Akil. "Kinetics of Radiolabeled
Adrenocorticotropin Hormone in Infant and Weanling Rats." Journal of
Neuroendocrinology 9.7 (2003): 529-36. Web.

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