https://cen.acs.org/articles/92/i7/Tracking-Memories-Form.html
“I joke to people that we want to show the mouse a picture of a cat and see if the mRNA in its brain gets excited,” Singer says. “It’s a silly analogy, but the point is that we’d like to connect behavior to molecular events.”
My guess would be that, they know if someone is awake enough to not mindlessly allow TPTB to tinker with what makes them human, they can logically conclude they might fight back given the right conditions.