In extreme cases, lack of empathy can lead to severe aggression against others. Impairments in empathy are a hallmark of many neuropsychiatric disorders, including autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and psychosis. Empathy is also crucial for emotional experiences and social interactions in social animals. Thus, our findings suggest that methods other than the fear observation system should be used to investigate rodent empathy-like behaviour.Įmpathy, which refers to the ability to share and understand the emotions of others, is an important element of our social and emotional lives. Thus, not only visual but also auditory and odour information additionally influenced the conformity-like behaviour shown by observer mice. ConclusionĪlthough our results indicate that observer mice change their behaviour based on the movements of demonstrator mice, increases in immobility time may reflect conformity-like behaviour rather than emotional empathy. In addition, the proportion of immobility time among observer mice significantly increased when demonstrator mice exhibited fear learning and excessive immobility. Moreover, when demonstrators exhibited excessive activity, the activity of the observers significantly increased. Relative to low-frequency stimulation, frequent electrical stimulation reduced immobility time among observer mice. If mice exhibit an ability to empathise, then the observer should display empathic behaviour when the demonstrator experiences pain or discomfort under any circumstances. We examined changes in the behaviour of an observer mouse when a demonstrator mouse was anaesthetised, when the demonstrator’s activity was increased, and when the interval of electrical stimulation was altered. However, in these observation systems, it remains unclear whether the observer mouse truly recognises the movements of, and empathises with, the demonstrator mouse.
Several research groups have recognised observational fear in mice as a useful behavioural model for assessing their ability to empathise. Empathy refers to the ability to recognise and share emotions with others.
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