小柯机器人

近日，葡萄牙古尔班基安科学研究所Rui F. Oliveira及其研究团队揭示催产素在斑马鱼社交恐惧传染中的演化保守作用。该项研究成果发表在2023年3月24日出版的《科学》杂志上。

通过评估催产素在斑马鱼社交恐惧传染中的作用，研究人员检验了情感传染的近似机制在多大程度上是演化保守的。研究人员使用催产素和催产素受体突变体，表明催产素对观察者斑马鱼模仿同种示范者的痛苦行为既必要又充分。斑马鱼中与情绪传染有关的脑区与啮齿类动物中参与同一过程的脑区（如纹状体、侧隔）是同源的，并接受来自位于视前区的催产素神经元的直接投射。

总之，这些研究结果支持催产素作为脊椎动物基本移情行为的一个关键调节因子的演化保守作用。

据悉，情感传染是最原始的共情形式。

附：英文原文

Title: Evolutionarily conserved role of oxytocin in social fear contagion in zebrafish

Author: Ibukun Akinrinade, Kyriacos Kareklas, Magda C. Teles, Thais K. Reis, Michael Gliksberg, Giovanni Petri, Gil Levkowitz, Rui F. Oliveira

Issue&Volume: 2023-03-24

Abstract: Emotional contagion is the most ancestral form of empathy. We tested to what extent the proximate mechanisms of emotional contagion are evolutionarily conserved by assessing the role of oxytocin, known to regulate empathic behaviors in mammals, in social fear contagion in zebrafish. Using oxytocin and oxytocin receptor mutants, we show that oxytocin is both necessary and sufficient for observer zebrafish to imitate the distressed behavior of conspecific demonstrators. The brain regions associated with emotional contagion in zebrafish are homologous to those involved in the same process in rodents (e.g., striatum, lateral septum), receiving direct projections from oxytocinergic neurons located in the pre-optic area. Together, our results support an evolutionary conserved role for oxytocin as a key regulator of basic empathic behaviors across vertebrates.

DOI: abq5158

Source: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abq5158