Amazing stuff! Do mice also have first responders? 😊
"In emergency situations, humans often exhibit instinctual “first aid” behaviors toward others. Whether and how other species show prosocial behaviors toward others is unclear.
In two independent studies, ... showed that mice exhibit stereotyped behaviors toward unconscious conspecifics, escalating from sniffing and grooming to licking of the head and tongue pulling, which accelerated recovery from unconsciousness ...
The activation of neurons in the medial amygdala and oxytocin-expressing neurons in the hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus was required to trigger these behaviors. The results elucidate different aspects of a previously unrecognized prosocial behavior in mice and its underlying neurobiological mechanisms."
From the abstract:
"Structured Abstract
INTRODUCTION
The partial or complete loss of responsiveness, such as transient unconsciousness, presents a substantial risk to animals, increasing their vulnerability to predators or hazardous environments.
The actions of bystanders toward unresponsive individuals can be critical for enhancing survival and well-being. Humans, for instance, can readily recognize and assist unconscious individuals.
Similarly, anecdotal reports suggest that some animal species, including nonhuman primates, marine mammals (e.g., whales and dolphins), and elephants, exhibit behavioral reactions to collapsed or unresponsive conspecifics in the wild. However, it is unclear whether such behaviors occur in species beyond those few that have been documented.
Additionally, the nature, characteristics, and consequences of these behaviors have not been systematically examined in a controlled experimental setting. Moreover, the neural mechanisms underlying the perception of others’ unresponsive states and the ensuing behaviors remain elusive.
RATIONALE
Previous studies have demonstrated that rodents, including mice, can perceive and behaviorally respond to others’ negative or needy states.
For example, they can display comforting social touch through allogrooming, broadly targeted at various body parts of distressed conspecifics. In addition, they can respond to others’ local pain and injury with allolicking behavior focused on the wound site.
However, it is unclear how mice react to other animals in an unresponsive state. In this study, we examined the behaviors that mice display toward unresponsive conspecifics, their effects on the recipients, and the neural representation and regulation of these behaviors.
RESULTS
We discovered that mice preferentially approach unresponsive conspecifics over awake ones and engage in distinctive behaviors toward unresponsive conspecifics under deep sedation, characterized by intense contact and grooming directed at the sedated individuals’ head region, particularly the facial and mouth areas. These behaviors are observed in both male and female animals and are correlated with the extent of reduction in the responsiveness of the recipients.
Physical contact and grooming directed at the head region are more likely to elicit motor responses in the recipients compared with other social behaviors and can expedite the animals’ recovery from the unresponsive state.
Moreover, we uncovered an essential role of the medial amygdala (MeA) in regulating this response. MeA neural activity differentiates between awake and sedated conspecifics at both single-cell and population levels, and the neural response to sedated animals does not simply reflect a response to novelty. Optogenetic silencing of MeA γ-aminobutyric acid–producing (GABAergic) neurons suppresses head grooming behavior, whereas their activation promotes this behavior. Although mice respond to sedated, unresponsive conspecifics primarily with head-directed allogrooming and physical contact, their allogrooming response to awake conspecifics experiencing a general state of stress mainly targets other body regions.
These two different adverse states and the corresponding behavioral responses (head grooming versus body grooming) are distinguishable by neural activities in the MeA, suggesting that the MeA may be part of the neural circuitry mediating the differentiation between these states.
CONCLUSION
Our findings reveal that mice exhibit rescue-like behaviors toward unresponsive conspecifics, characterized by intense physical contact directed at the recipient’s head region. This response accelerates recovery from unresponsiveness, potentially reducing risks to unresponsive individuals and enhancing their survival. We have also uncovered that the MeA encodes the unresponsive state of others and drives head-directed grooming toward them.
Notably, the behavioral response toward unresponsive conspecifics differs from that toward awake, stressed individuals, and these responses are differentially represented in the MeA. These findings shed light on the neural mechanisms underlying prosocial responses toward unresponsive individuals, broadening our understanding of animals’ ability to detect and behaviorally react to different adverse conditions of others."
Prosocial behavior toward unresponsive conspecifics.
Mouse behaviors toward an unconscious peer.
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