Rats, reasoning, and rehabilitation: Neuroscientists are uncovering how we reason

(Cognitive Neuroscience Society) Even rats can imagine: A new study finds that rats have the ability to link cause and effect such that they can expect, or imagine, something happening even if it isn't. The findings -- which are being presented today at the Cognitive Neuroscience Society conference in San Francisco -- are important to understanding human reasoning, especially in older adults, as aging degrades the ability to maintain information about unobserved events.