This is what I thought too. Imagine being the rat and instinctively knowing that you should be moving away from the danger yet somehow, something is compelling you to move towards it. The conscious fear that the rat feels that would normally protect it from the dangerous situation is overridden by an external influence that leads it to its doom.
I think there are obvious ethical issues to consider here. If we would not place ourselves in the situation we should not use another animal as a surrogate or to substitute for our cowardice.
I agree with all you have written except for one thing. Look around, if you randomly sample comments in this thread, how many are mentioning these "obvious ethical issues"?
Perhaps I see an ethical issue where others only see an opportunity. Maybe if they had to be on the research subject side of that opportunity instead of the researcher side they might also see an ethical issue.
You're observation also applies to the direction a lot of tech development is taking. People look for opportunities and ignore the consequences for the ones who can't participate or who become unwilling participants. Pretty sad state of affairs.
I think there are obvious ethical issues to consider here. If we would not place ourselves in the situation we should not use another animal as a surrogate or to substitute for our cowardice.