Regret Shown in Mice and Immigrants

            Brian M. Sweis’s study brought awareness of how mammals minimize regret based on reward systems’ interactions with primal necessities. The study trained mice to obtain their entire food supply within an hour in a set-up called “Restaurant Row.” Each of the four rooms had a different flavor of food in the form of a food pellet. In each room and trial, the time to wait for the reward varied. The varying times prompted the mice to quickly evaluate the risks and rewards to obtain maximum food pellets while limiting regret or lack of food pellets. Mice became more aware and started to plan their Restaurant Row paths to avoid leaving the trial without the reward.

            After discovering how mice learned to plan their actions to get the maximum benefit with minimal regret with the various wait times, I was curious how planning and regret could associate with impoverished communities and their lack of a stable supply of basic necessities. While I thought that decrease in food stability would increase criminal activity, I also considered the sociological aspects of what regret could imply if one cannot provide or obtain the appropriate resources. The paper, “Food Insecurity and Risk of Depression Among Refugees and Immigrants in South Africa,” by Varsha Maharaj et al., evaluated the relationship between food insecurity and mental health. They determined that the refugees had an abnormally high amount of pressure to provide for their families as well as themselves. The researchers noted that the individuals receiving inadequate nutrients were biologically at a greater risk for depression. When immigrants were forced to relocate to another area to provide for their families, they had to plan for multiple, unknown factors. While it is not explicitly mentioned in the article, it can be assumed that immigrants had to secure a source of food, shelter, and other necessities, which put a further strain on the individuals.

            Furthermore, I agree with Mr. Sweis’s viewpoint that food is a motivator that changes behavior to minimize regret and maximize rewards as it is a necessity. However, while food is a universal motivator, there are other factors and implications that impact the individual’s mental health. As noted, lack of food could biologically alter the individual and therefore make them more susceptible to depression. The mice planned their routes to effectively obtain the most amount of food in a limited time, just as immigrants had to plan their survival in a new environment. While I knew that the inability to adequately obtain food was a universal regret, I was unaware of the importance that regret had impacted immigrants in impoverished areas.

Sources

Maharaj, Varsha, et al. “Food Insecurity and Risk of Depression Among Refugees and Immigrants in South Africa.” Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health, U.S. National Library of Medicine, June 2017, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5026864/.

Sweis BM, Thomas MJ, Redish AD (2018) Mice learn to avoid regret. PLoS Biol 16(^): e2005853. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.2005853.