Rats, Exploration and the Benefits of Travel

This passage in a New York Times story about the downsides of frequent exposure to information and entertainment on mobile devices caught my eye:

At the University of California, San Francisco, scientists have found that when rats have a new experience, like exploring an unfamiliar area, their brains show new patterns of activity. But only when the rats take a break from their exploration do they process those patterns in a way that seems to create a persistent memory of the experience.

The researchers suspect that the findings also apply to how humans learn.

Sounds to me like the perfect day of travel away from the rat race: exploring an unfamiliar place, followed by some good downtime in the evening.

As if you needed another reason to travel, right?

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