Biological basis of prosocial behaviour in mice and humans

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Recent findings from HQP in my laboratory have suggested that empathy, affiliation and prosocial (i.e., helping) behaviour can be demonstrated and studied in rodents as well as humans, in a completely translational manner from one species to the other. We have found that mice are capable of empathy for each other's pain, but only when they are familiars (i.e., cage mates). Empathy among stranger mice is prevented by social stress, and can be elicited if this stress is reduced. The translational relevance of these findings is evidenced by the fact that we obtain precisely equivalent findings in human subjects. Furthermore, we find that female (but not male) mice approach familiars in pain rather than avoiding them, and that the more they approach the less pain behaviour is seen in the affected mouse. This observation is suggestive of prosocial behaviour, and this sex difference has been documented in rats and humans as well. Finally, we have observed that social communication between mice, and social communication between mice and other species including humans can induce or ameliorate stress, affecting pain behaviour. The proposed research program is designed to systematically investigate (in the long term) the biology of empathy, prosocial behaviour, social communication and affiliation in both rodents and humans, with an emphasis in the short term on examining sex differences, the effect of genetic background and social experiences (i.e., nature vs. nurture), and the possibility that enduring epigenetic (i.e., DNA-associated protein) changes in stress-related genes (e.g., Nr3c1, encoding the glucocorticoid receptor) represent the core mechanism underlying familiarity, empathy, and possibly even friendship.