Uplifted

Uplifting is a process by which mundane animals can gain sentience.

Biological Uplifting
The first example of uplifting was semi-intentionally caused by NIMH researchers who created injections that both slowed the aging of test rodents, increased their brain capacity and increased their Power-sensitivity. The latter characteristic caused the rats and mice to progressively gain human traits physically, such as a tendancy to walk upright. The level of uplifting seemed to vary depending on subjects for a single dose of the chemical, as Jenner, for instance, retained more animal instincts and traits than any other rats. Biological Uplifting was only ever known to be used on thirty-one subjects in total, namely the NIMH Escapees and the Lost Nine.

Power-based Uplifting
Due to the heightened Power-sensitivity of the NIMH Escapees, their mental changes spread out throughout the Fitzgibbon Farm, mainly due to the extraordinary power of the Rats' leader, Nicodemus. Prolonged contact with Power-sensitive Uplifted subjetcs thus seemed to cause Uplifting. However, this version of the process could only be completed by almost constant exposure to the biologically Uplifted. Thus, while Mrs Brisby, the wife of an uplifted mouse, gained almost as much intelligence as regular Uplifted specimens, Jeremy, a crow who only lived in the same vicinity as the Rats, gained limited sentience but was unable to comprehend complex concepts and retained several aviary instincts, and Dragon, a cat whom the Uplifted rats actively avoided, never gained enough intelligence to so much as understand spoken language.

Shock-based Uplifting
NIMH researcher Dr Valentine once researched the potential of using shocks of Power to alter and highten animals' intelligence. The validity of his method is unknown, as he tested it on Martin Brisby, a mouse who, unbeknownst to Valentine, was actually already Uplifted. However, after Martin rebelled against Valentine, he further developped this technique, using it to create obedient servants. Shock-based Uplifting was apparently painful to its victims, though Martin himself grew addicted to it and would later describe the experience as "purest pleasure".

Reverse Uplifting
Martin Brisby, after suffering Shock-based Uplifting, gained enough knowledge and ingeniosity to create various shock-based devices to alter the mind and body of various creatures. Among those, he notably created a machine capable of 'Reverse-Uplifting' sentient creatures back to an animalistic state, which he used on the NIMH scientists (starting with Dr Valentine) to regress their intelligence to that of dogs. Like all of Martin's techniques, this was apparently very painful to the victim.

Differences with the Novel
In Robert O'Brian's novels, the process of Biological Uplifting not only made the Rats of NIMH longer-lived and more intelligent, but also physically stronger. On the other hand, Uplifting did not possess the ability of spreading through the Power onto other animals, as the Power itself did not exist in the books; common animals were simply shown to be more intelligent than in the real world, regardless of whether they had been Uplifted or not.