Mice show empathy
Science 312, 1967–1970 (2006)
A mouse watching a cage-mate writhe in pain will writhe more itself, an observation that Jeffrey Mogil and his team at McGill University in Montreal conclude is evidence of rodent empathy.
The researchers tested mice in twos, giving one or both mildly painful shots of acetic acid. If the two were strangers, they behaved as if they were on their own. But if they had lived together for a few weeks, and both got a shot, they both showed more abdominal constrictions, termed writhing, than when given a shot alone. The effect vanished if the roomies could not see one another.
Empathy has previously been considered an attribute of primates alone. Of course, the empathetic response does not indicate that the mice consciously felt sorry for one another — only that they respond to each other's pain.
A mouse watching a cage-mate writhe in pain will writhe more itself, an observation that Jeffrey Mogil and his team at McGill University in Montreal conclude is evidence of rodent empathy.
The researchers tested mice in twos, giving one or both mildly painful shots of acetic acid. If the two were strangers, they behaved as if they were on their own. But if they had lived together for a few weeks, and both got a shot, they both showed more abdominal constrictions, termed writhing, than when given a shot alone. The effect vanished if the roomies could not see one another.
Empathy has previously been considered an attribute of primates alone. Of course, the empathetic response does not indicate that the mice consciously felt sorry for one another — only that they respond to each other's pain.
posted by Ubiquitin at 9:09 AM
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