Are rats influenced by the actions of other rats? That's what we tried to uncover in this project! This project explores the Bystander Effect, but with a rodent twist.
You've likely heard of the Bystander Effect in humans, but what happens when we bring rats into the picture? Traditional statistical methods struggle to capture the nuances when multiple "test subjects" (in this case, rats) are in the mix. This project pioneers a solution to that challenge, dissecting the behavioral intricacies of rats influenced by their peers.
Our findings have already made waves in the academic realm, finding a home in the prestigious Science Advances journal. Beyond that, the analytical methods employed can be applied in studies involving multi-subject treatments, opening up new avenues in behavioral science.
- Complete R script for data analysis
- Creation of simulated duos and trios from individual rats to determine whether the group behavior is different than the sum of the individual behaviors.
- Opening analysis and comparison across different groups (one or two bystanders, no bystanders, one or two naive rats)
- R and the necessary packages (
readxl,dplyr,plyr,PMCMR)
- Clone the GitHub repository.
- Open R and run the script.
That's it! Simple, right?
- Statistical framework defined and implemented
- Analysis contributing to a published academic paper
While the project is considered complete, there are possibilities for extending its applicability to broader use-cases.
If you have ideas on how this analysis could be adapted for other contexts, feel free to reach out.
For more information, queries, or collaboration opportunities, check out my GitHub home page.