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Helping Behavior in Prairie Voles: A Model of Empathy and the Importance of Oxytocin

Kota Kitano, Atsuhito Yamagishi, Kengo Horie, Katsuhiko Nishimori, Nobuya Sato
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.10.20.347872
Kota Kitano
1Department of Psychological Sciences, Kwansei Gakuin University, Nishinomiya, Hyogo 662-8501, Japan
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Atsuhito Yamagishi
1Department of Psychological Sciences, Kwansei Gakuin University, Nishinomiya, Hyogo 662-8501, Japan
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Kengo Horie
2Silvio O. Conte Center for Oxytocin and Social Cognition, Center for Translational Social Neuroscience, Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Emory University, 954 Gatewood Rd., Atlanta GA 30329, USA
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Katsuhiko Nishimori
3Department of Obesity and Inflammation Research, Fukushima Medical University, Fukushima, Fukushima 960-1295, Japan
4Department of Bioregulation and Pharmacological Medicine, Fukushima Medical University, Fukushima, Fukushima 960-1295, Japan
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Nobuya Sato
1Department of Psychological Sciences, Kwansei Gakuin University, Nishinomiya, Hyogo 662-8501, Japan
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  • For correspondence: nsato@kwansei.ac.jp
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Abstract

Accumulated evidence across animals suggests that helping behavior is triggered by empathy. We examined whether prairie voles, one of the more highly social animals, help conspecifics who are soaked in water by opening a door to a safe area. Door-opening latency decreased as task sessions progressed, suggesting that prairie voles learn helping behavior. In addition, when the conspecific was not soaked in water, the latency of the door-opening did not decrease, suggesting that the distress of the conspecific is necessary for the learning of the door-opening. Thus, the door-opening behavior in prairie voles can be considered a helping behavior that is motivated by empathy for the distress of conspecifics. We also examined the helping behavior in prairie voles in which oxytocin receptors were genetically knocked out. Oxytocin receptor knockout voles demonstrated impaired learning of the door-opening. This suggests that oxytocin is important for the emergence of helping behavior.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY 4.0 International license.
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Posted October 21, 2020.
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Helping Behavior in Prairie Voles: A Model of Empathy and the Importance of Oxytocin
Kota Kitano, Atsuhito Yamagishi, Kengo Horie, Katsuhiko Nishimori, Nobuya Sato
bioRxiv 2020.10.20.347872; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.10.20.347872
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Helping Behavior in Prairie Voles: A Model of Empathy and the Importance of Oxytocin
Kota Kitano, Atsuhito Yamagishi, Kengo Horie, Katsuhiko Nishimori, Nobuya Sato
bioRxiv 2020.10.20.347872; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.10.20.347872

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