Mouse Reflections

With apologies to Mulan,
Who is that MOUSE I see…staring straight back at me?

This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science.

How do you know what you’re SUPPOSED to look like? Sure you can look in a mirror. But how do we recognize the face staring back as OURSELVES?

Jun Yakose and team from University of Texas Southwestern REFLECTED on this. They marked mice on the head with white ink in front of a mirror. The team then watched the mice react to their reflections, while monitoring their brains.

Results? In front of mirrors, the marked mice tried rubbing the ink off their heads! Inside their hippocampus brain regions, certain neurons fired off when the mice saw their reflections. Inactivating these neurons resulted in less grooming of their inked heads.

The researchers believe this can give more insight into neural networks involved in self-recognition in humans.

And it answers the age old question: what happens when you give a mouse a mirror?


Reference: Yakose J., Marks W.D., Kitamura T. Visuotactile integration facilitates mirror-induced self-directed behavior through activation of hippocampal neuronal ensembles in mice. Neuron 112, 1-13 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2023.10.022