PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Lena V. Kaufmann
AU  - Michael Brecht
AU  - Shimpei Ishiyama
TI  - Tickle contagion in the somatosensory cortex
AID  - 10.1101/2021.10.22.465426
DP  - 2021 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2021.10.22.465426
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/10/24/2021.10.22.465426.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/10/24/2021.10.22.465426.full
AB  - The cellular mechanisms of emotional contagion are unknown. We investigated tickle contagion and the underlying neuronal representations in rats. We recorded trunk somatosensory cortex activity of observer rats while they received tickling, audio-visual playback of tickling footage, and while they witnessed tickling of demonstrator rats. Observers vocalized, and showed “Freudensprünge” (“joy jumps”) during witnessing live tickling, while they showed little behavioral responses to playbacks. A fraction of trunk somatosensory neurons responded to both direct and witnessed tickling in action-specific manner. The correlation between direct and witnessed tickling responses increased towards deeper cortical layers. Tickle-mirror neurons but not non-mirror neurons discharged prior to and during vocalizations and hence might drive contagious ‘laughter’. We conclude that trunk somatosensory cortex represents mirrored ticklishness.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.