Bizarre experiment has real-life rats playing Doom for some reason

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Scientists have successfully taught rats to play the video game Doom. This isn’t a hypothetical idea or a prank – it’s the result of a long-term experiment that recently achieved a significant breakthrough.

I honestly can’t believe what I’ve seen! This started as a simple experiment – seeing how animals would react to a virtual world. But it’s become the wildest Doom adaptation ever! They’ve got rodents actually playing the game – running around levels, bumping into walls, and even, somehow, firing the weapons! It’s completely mind-blowing.

This research began in 2021 and is headed by neuroengineer Viktor Tóth. Initially, the team wasn’t trying to get animals to play video games; they wanted to understand how brains process virtual worlds and respond to visual cues. They picked the game Doom because it’s visually straightforward, has easy-to-follow movement, and is simple to modify, making it possible even for a rat to participate.

Rats are now slaying in Doom

Initially, the system worked by having rats walk on a ball that acted like a treadmill. As the rat moved, the ball would turn, which controlled the character’s movement in the Doom video game. This setup let the rats explore the game’s levels as if they were actually walking around in a real environment.

The system used sugary water to motivate the rats to perform certain actions. Whenever a rat moved forward, made the correct turn, or investigated a new space, it received a small reward. Eventually, the rats learned to connect moving and exploring with positive experiences, causing them to navigate more intentionally. Researchers also enabled the rats to ‘feel’ when they bumped into walls by using gentle puffs of air on their noses.

This updated experiment takes things a step further. Researchers have added a device that provides physical sensations and a system that mimics firing a weapon during gameplay. When triggered, this system fires the in-game weapon, allowing the rats to ‘shoot’ at enemies – though they don’t understand what those enemies are.

Tóth emphasizes this research isn’t about teaching rats to play Doom. The rats don’t understand the game itself – they don’t grasp the rules or the idea of enemies. Instead, the project explores how brains adjust to virtual environments, how information from senses affects learning, and how physical movements translate into actions within the game.

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2025-12-17 15:18