They look for symptoms of depression like physical fatigue, low energy, changes in appetite, and changes in sleep patterns.DanDeFool said:
I heard about an interesting study with rats.. I might be remembering this incorrectly but it went something like this. There were two buttons. One gave the rats a little shock and one gave them a piece of cheese. Each button always stayed the same, and over time the rats would learn to avoid the one with the shock. After it was clear they had the pattern down, they changed it so the button that shocked them was random. Or maybe it was that both shocked them. The idea was to put them in an environment where they felt like they had no control, an environment that made them feel helpless. Eventually they began to show the symptoms of depression mentioned above. Hopefully I got that mostly right.
Anyway, I've always considered the minds of humans to be more fragile than animals. All our crazy thoughts and feelings get all jumbled up and tie us down in terms of pure productivity, while an animal's mind is highly focused, if simple. If an animal can be overcome by depression, I'd wager a person would be more likely to become depressed in the same circumstance.
As for the article, I think we're all on the same page here. Scientific study blown way out of proportion and greatly extrapolated on by questionable news media source. Not to mention I'd take the extra sexual experience over some (probably negligible) growth downstairs, any day.
