TED
April 19, 2026 · 4 min read
I Taught Rats to Drive. They Taught Me to Enjoy the Ride | Kelly Lambert | TED
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Key Takeaways
- 1When I first started teaching rats to drive cars, I never dreamed that those little rodents would steer me toward a surprisingly big discovery abou...
- 2This focus made sense given that depression rates remain unacceptably high, and deaths of despair related to suicide, addiction, and loneliness are...
- 3Several years ago, while writing my book "Lifting Depression," I began investigating connections between reward and physical effort.
- 4To test this concept scientifically, I turned to my research colleagues: laboratory rats.
- 5Importantly, when we compared these animals to a control group that received the same number of Froot Loops without working for them - our "Trust F...
Overview
When I first started teaching rats to drive cars, I never dreamed that those little rodents would steer me toward a surprisingly big discovery about the importance of joy in our lives. As a behavioral neuroscientist interested in how brains, behavior, and environment influence one another, I've spent most of my career focused on negative emotions: fear, stress, anxiety, and symptoms of depression.
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