September 18, 2026

"It may have a large proportion of its brain made up of human cells, but none of its behavior is made up of human behavior."

Said Madeline Lancaster, a developmental neurobiologist, quoted in "These Mice Have Partly Human Brains/The animals may help reveal the causes of brain disease in people and point the way to treatments. But researchers already are calling for new ethical guidelines" (NYT gift link).

What counts as "human behavior"? It says: "The human cells were still immature, [the] team found, resembling the neurons inside the brain of a third-trimester fetus. But they still managed to connect with the mouse brain, becoming active as the mice went about their lives. The researchers filmed the movements of the mice, finding only subtle differences from ordinary mice."

You're observing a creature with the body of a mouse. What could it do that would make you say it's exhibiting human behavior (especially if you had an interest in producing mice that could be used in research? When would you say, no, this is human enough that ethics require us to abandon them as test mice?

Maybe put a little mirror in the cage and see if it gazes at itself philosophically or practices dance steps. 

31 comments:

R C Belaire said...

When a mouse says "Hello, world!" would be proof enough.

Wince said...

Of mice and men?

imTay said...

If it clenches its fist and pounds the floor in rage because you can't understand its squeaks, that would be it for me.

bagoh20 said...

If it played on of those tiny violins so common today.

rhhardin said...

He is a frog — anyway he lives as a frog, says what frogs say, loves what frogs love. He has been changed into something else. Has he the soul of a frog? I might say he has the consciousness of a frog, though he has the self-consciousness of a Prince. But there are limits. No magic can change a frog into a Prince — a frog, that is, who had never been a Prince. He can be given a Prince's shape, that is all. He has the self-consciousness of a frog. Then the frog in him will, I imagine, keep trying to get out.

Stanley Cavell, The Claim of Reason

Aggie said...

If you see one lounging around at night with a smoking jacket on, reading the paper, it might be a giveaway.

CJinPA said...

If the mice start desecrating the earth and oppressing the weak, you'll know they exhibit human behavior.

[HOLD FOR APPLAUSE]

RideSpaceMountain said...

"What counts as 'human behavior'?"

Shampooing away from being nothing.

Disparity of Cult said...

Do these cedar shavings make my butt look fat?

Marcus Bressler said...

Obviously mousey behavior.

n.n said...

Build a cooking fire. Tend a garden. Manage a herd of rats. Sodomy seems to be a uniquely human activity. Perhaps a Planned burden in mouse rites.

loudogblog said...

"Step, kick, kick, step, leap, touch...Again!
Step, kick, kick, step, leap, touch...Again!
Step, kick, kick, step, leap, touch...Again!
Step, kick, kick, step, leap, touch...Again!"

Original Mike said...

I'm no expert, but I would expect human neurons and mouse neurons to be pretty much the same thing.

MadTownGuy said...

If it escapes to the sewers and starts assembling a team of mutant turtles....

bagoh20 said...

Of all species, why do humans seem to have the largest amount of mental and physical disfunction? No other species needs so much remedial care and support just to survive.

Original Mike said...

"Of all species, why do humans seem to have the largest amount of mental and physical disfunction?"

I imagine it's related to complexity; more ways for things to go wrong. How much mental complexity is there in a mouse?

Bob Boyd said...

When it starts obsessively comparing itself to others in a desperate search for any reason to feel vain rather than bitter.

ThatsGoingToLeaveA said...

I was expecting a poll: "Maybe put a little mirror in the cage and see if it gazes at itself philosophically or practices dance steps. "

Iman said...

“When would you say, no, this is human enough that ethics require us to abandon them as test mice?”

As soon as the humice begin dying their fur pink/purple/ yellow/ chartreuse and sporting snout piercings?

Iman said...

er, dyeing…

Joe Bar said...

So, we're playing God with mouse brains, now. Good to know when the mousepocalypse arrives.

hanuman_prodigious_leaper said...

Become bipedal? Ask for Brazilian Waxing?

Rabel said...

Talk of stem cells, organelles, and neurons aside, they're putting human DNA into an animal brain.

Whether we get the Ghost in the Furry Shell or Doc Moreau's island is still TBD.

Roger This said...

How about:

When you see him whistling a tune while piloting a steamboat??

Josephbleau said...

Do mice bring their girlmice cheese before they “ go out”.

Greg The Class Traitor said...

Maybe put a little mirror in the cage and see if it gazes at itself philosophically or practices dance steps.

You made me laugh

Goldenpause said...

Bioethics has been a perverse joke for a long time. They always find a way for it to be “ethical” to do whatever they want to do, such as rebranding “assisted suicide” as “Medical Aid In Dying.”

Goldenpause said...

Bioethics has been a perverse joke for a long time. They always find a way for it to be “ethical” to do whatever they want to do, such as rebranding “assisted suicide” as “Medical Aid In Dying.”

Lazarus said...

Units of behavior are known as "behavioremes" or "actemes".

Or rather, not known, since those terms didn't catch on.

It's not too late for us to make it happen though.

wildswan said...

In the womb, the little mouse that could (or couldn’t) felt mouse emotions from its mother and heard mouse communications going on in the nest outside. And so, when born, it was already partially programmed to be a mouse. Its mother could only continue along these lines and show her baby how to be a mouse. But if the researcher played Mozart while the mouse was in the womb and had people talking nearby, then maybe you could get the baby mouse to think the researcher was its mother when it came out of the womb. Of course, the researcher would have to cuddle it and talk to it. “Izu Momma’s wittle mouse. Ess u is, little sweetums, etc.” If the mouse imprinted on her by these means, as the sandhill cranes imprinted on their researcher, then maybe you'd see a difference in behavior. Maybe then you'd see the mouse dancing when it heard Mozart and covering its ears at Stravinsky. But I think it's the network in the human brain that matters and I doubt that the neurons in the mouse are receiving the genetic signaling which establishes the human neural network which is the material basis the soul works through. The little mouse that couldn't won’t be human. (But perhaps we should leave a typewriter in the cage in case Archie IS there and wants to communicate.)

Josephbleau said...

This article is just a third order timed release project on the hate ai operation. The google hits on bad ai dropped so this is likely a booster saving that, hey electric ai is damn bad and here comes monkey ai! We have to deal with electrical ai right goddam now.

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