Use in Science
The reliability which hamsters and other animals use running wheels has made wheel-running one of the most widely used indicators of activity and wake-time in research on circadian rhythms and other aspects of chronobiology.
While relatively little is known about the neurotransmitter systems involved in wheel running behavior, recent evidence suggests that changes in serotonergic tone alter running wheel activity. For example, one study in mice has shown that several antidepressant medications (all of which directly or indirectly enhance serotonergic tone) suppress running wheel activity without suppressing general locomotion.
Read more about this topic: Hamster Wheel
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“There is more religion in men’s science than there is science in their religion.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)