[McMock]

Well I don't know anything about it, but I'd say it's probably not all that different from our brains at all.

Think about it. A child learns not to put it's hand on a hot stove by burning it, and being in pain. The rat brain learns not to crash it's ratplane by being given a shock. Same thing, but on a small scale, no?

Maybe the lesson to learn from this is not that the ratbrain is not alive, but that we are far less alive than we think we are.