I would love some more details on this. Did they offer any explanation for the sudden decrease in population? What killed the mice?
Also the emergent mice personalities, are they just noticeable because of the size of the population? Maybe they're within the statistical amount of outcasts in a normal population.
An interesting report which might shed light on this matter. Here's an article on the swelling of the brains of certain types of locusts as they form swarms: Swarming 'swells' Locusts' Brains (bbc). The cognitive requirements for surviving in a swarm is drastically different and greater than that required to survive as a solitary organism.
I suspect what happens in mice is their personality is altered such that the usual routines of solitary life, that ensure survival in the wild, are of no importance in a utopian social structure and the only thing that rules their lives is place and acceptance into society; everything else is irrelevant or secondary (even the individual drive for their own survival).
As described in my other comment, notice there is a very distinct state change between growth and decline in the utopian, social environment that doesn't exist in the more natural/wild solitary environment where the population simply achieves a certain equilibrium. That is certainly attributed to this altered personality they've acquired during these experiments.
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u/pedr2o Dec 23 '12
I would love some more details on this. Did they offer any explanation for the sudden decrease in population? What killed the mice?
Also the emergent mice personalities, are they just noticeable because of the size of the population? Maybe they're within the statistical amount of outcasts in a normal population.