Defector: Of course a strange maze would terrify a mouse that has only ever known a shoebox. But what of a mouse that has explored a vast field, ran from the spatter of raindrops, felt the warmth of the sun and the chill of night, and dug into the living soil of the Earth? defector.com/what-a-week-...

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Of course a strange maze would terrify a mouse that has only ever known a shoebox. But what of a mouse that has explored a vast field, ran from the spatter of raindrops, felt the warmth of the sun and the chill of night, and dug into the living soil of the Earth? defector.com/what-a-week-...
What A Week Of Freedom Can Do For A Lab Mouse | Defector

Each time Matthew Zipple, a behavioral ecologist at Cornell University, releases a mouse that was born and raised in a laboratory into the green expanse of a field, he is amazed. He transports the…

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Jan 9, 2026 01:52
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Stoyo handle.invalid · Jan 9
The elevated plus maze captures the compromise between two drives: the desire to stay it out of danger (“anxiety”) and the desire to explore a novel environment. When mice are returned to the EPM and spend more time in the safe areas they haven’t “developed a fear” /1

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Stoyo handle.invalid · Jan 9
They’ve found the dangerous parts uninteresting. Spending time in the wild likely enhances exploratory drive, and that seems like the more probable explanation for the results that the paper (and article about it) interpret, in my view unjustifiably, as reduced “fear”.

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What A Week Of Freedom Can Do For A Lab Mouse | Defector