Social experience drives empathetic, pro-social behavior in rats

Social experience drives empathetic, pro-social behavior in rats

The findings suggest that social experiences, not genetics or kin selection, determine whether an individual will help strangers out of empathy. The importance of social experience extends even to rats of the same strain -- a rat fostered and raised with a strain different than itself will not help strangers of its own kind.

"Pro-social behavior appears to be determined only by social experience," said Inbal Bartal, PhD, a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Chicago and lead author of the study "It takes diverse social interactions during development or adulthood to expand helping behavior to more groups of unfamiliar individuals. Even in humans, studies have shown that exposure to diverse environments reduces social bias and increases pro-social behavior."

In 2011, a team led by Bartal and Peggy Mason, PhD, professor of neurobiology at the University of Chicago, discovered that rats exhibit empathy-like helping behavior. They found that rats consistently freed companions that were trapped inside clear restrainers, and this behavior was driven by a rat version of empathy.

To determine whether rats would behave similarly toward strangers, the researchers worked with two rat strains, one albino and the other with a black-hooded fur pattern. Free rats, which were always albino, were first tested with trapped albino strangers they had never previously interacted with, even by smell. They encountered a different stranger every day, once per day, for 12 days. Free rats quickly became consistent openers for these albino strangers.

When free albino rats were tested with a black-hooded stranger, however, the majority did not open the restrainer for the trapped individual. By contrast, albino rats who were housed with a black-hooded companion were observed to consistently liberate their black-hooded cage-mates.

To see if a rat could be motivated to help a stranger of a different strain, albino rats were housed for two weeks with a black-hooded rat, and then re-housed with another albino rat before being tested with black-hooded strangers. These rats, which had known only one black-hooded individual during their lifetimes, freed trapped black-hooded strangers. These tests suggest that rats do not need to be familiar with an individual to display empathy-driven helping behavior, but that they do need to be familiar with the strain of a rat.

To determine if this strain familiarity is needed for a rat's own strain, newborn albino rats were fostered with black-hooded mothers and littermates. These albino rats were raised in an environment in which they were denied any exposure to rats of their own strain. When tested, these rats helped trapped black-hooded strangers but not albino strangers.

"Rats are apparently able to categorize others into groups and modify their social behavior according to group membership," Bartal said. "Genetic similarity or relatedness to another individual really has no influence at all."

"Rats are not born with an innate identity or motivation to help their own type," Mason said. "It's only through social interactions that they form bonds that elicit empathy and motivate helping. There are no mirrors in nature, so what they see forms their identity."

With these behavioral patterns established in an animal model, the researchers are optimistic the underlying biological mechanisms of helping and group categorization can be explored, and that these results can inform future studies in other social species, including humans.

"Exposure to and interaction with different types of individuals motivates them to act well toward others that may or may not look like them," added Mason. "I think these results have a lot to say about human society."

Welcome to SUV System Ltd!

SUV System Ltd is ISO 90012008 Certified electronics distributor with 10 years of experiences.

We have built up long term business relationship with about many companies which are stockers and authorized agents. we have a steady and reliable supply to meet customer's demands to the greatest extent .Confidently, we are able to lower your cost and support your business with our years of professional service.

SUV System Ltd is Electronic Components Distributor Supplies,Find Quality Electronic Components Supplies Products IC(Integrated Circuits),Connectors,Capacitor,Resistors,Diodes,Transistors,LED at Suvsystem.com. Sourcing Other Energy, Environment, Excess Inventory Products from Manufacturers and Suppliers at Suvsystem.com

Electronic Components distributor:http://www.suvsystem.com

Connectors Distributor:http://www.suvsystem.com/l/Connectors-1.html

IC Distributor:http://www.suvsystem.com/l/IC(Integrated-Circuits)-1.html

LED Distributor:http://www.suvsystem.com/l/LED-1.html

Capacitor Distributor:http://www.suvsystem.com/l/Capacitor-1.html

Transistor Distributor:http://www.suvsystem.com/l/Transistors-1.html

Resistor Distributor:http://www.suvsystem.com/l/Resistors-1.html

Diode Distributor:http://www.suvsystem.com/l/Diodes-1.html

SUV System Ltd insists on the managing faith ofsincereness,speciality,foresight, win-win,so we build up stable-relationship customers located all over the world, including the States, Europe, Argentina, UAE, Malaysia, Australia,and India etc

we are focus on the following fields,and hope we can help you.

Discrete Semiconductor Transistors IDT IC Fairchild Semiconductor Transistors LED MURATA IC Industrial IC ST Transistors Fleld Effect Transistors Rectifier Diodes High Precision Resistors TOSHIBA Diodes SANYO IC MOTOROLA IC Diodes Inc components LED part ON Diodes AD IC PANASONIC ST Diodes Ligitek LED Thin Film Resistors chip Filter saws Renesas parts IC Electronic News LITTELFUSE Diodes Texas Instruments(TI) IC AGILENT LED Chip Ferrite Beads TDK IC Infineon Technologies Transistors NS IC Xilinx IC Cypress IC AVX Resistors Civil IC ALTERA IC Vishay resistors Resistors Zener Diodes
http://www.suvsystem.com/a/9131.aspx