This kind of response by lab animals to stressors in their environment reminds me of the "Rat Park"[1] experiment, in which rats who were stressed out from being kept isolated in small cages (rats are social animals) had a tendency to become addicted to morphine, but those who lived in a pleasant environment did not.
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This kind of response by lab animals to stressors in their environment reminds me of the "Rat Park"[1] experiment, in which rats who were stressed out from being kept isolated in small cages (rats are social animals) had a tendency to become addicted to morphine, but those who lived in a pleasant environment did not.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat_park
BTW, Stuart McMillen made an excellent comic about Rat Park. I think it may have been linked on HN before, but just in case:
http://www.stuartmcmillen.com/comics_en/rat-park/
this one, too, and this one is really confounding because the LAW requires animals to be handled at RT.
http://www.nature.com/news/chilly-lab-mice-skew-cancer-studi...