ArticleFrontiers in behavioral neuroscience2018
Validating Rat Model of Empathy for Pain: Effects of Pain Expressions in Social Partners.
Article in Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 26 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
26 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 60 citations in OpenAlex.
- Social contagion of pain and fear results in opposite social behaviors in rodents: meta- analysis of experimental studies.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2024Pooled it
- Hypothalamic-amygdala gating of caregiving-like prosocial behavior in mice.The Journal of clinical investigation · 2026Article
- Cholecystokinin input from the anterior cingulate cortex to the lateral periaqueductal gray mediates nocebo pain behavior in mice.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Sex Differences in Pain Contagion Determined by the Balance of Oxytocin and Corticosterone in the Anterior Cingulate Cortex in Rodents.Neuroscience bulletin · 2025Article
- Modulatory Effects of CB1 Receptors on Cognitive Performance in Rat Model of Empathic Pain.Basic and clinical neuroscience · 2025Article
- Prosocial Helping Behavior: Conceptual Issues and Neural Mechanisms.Biological psychiatry · 2025Review
- A neural basis for prosocial behavior toward unresponsive individuals.Science (New York, N.Y.) · 2025Article
- What do ultrasound vocalizations really mean in rats with different origins of pain?Pain reports · 2025Article
- Shaping behaviors through social experience and their proposed sensitivity to stress.Learning & memory (Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y.) · 2024Review
- Prior Negative Experience Biases Activity of Medial Amygdala during Interstrain Social Engagement in Male Rats.eNeuro · 2024Article
- CFA-treated mice induce hyperalgesia in healthy mice via an olfactory mechanism.European journal of pain (London, England) · 2024Article
- Article
- Vicarious Emotions of Fear and Pain in Rodents.Affective science · 2023Review
- Article
- An Empathic Pain-Regulated Neural Circuit.Neuroscience bulletin · 2022Article
- Neural basis of prosocial behavior.Trends in neurosciences · 2022Review
- Emotional contagion in nonhuman animals: A review.Wiley interdisciplinary reviews. Cognitive science · 2022Review
- Mice Cohabiting With Familiar Conspecific in Chronic Stress Condition Exhibit Methamphetamine-Induced Locomotor Sensitization and Augmented Consolation Behavior.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2022Article
- What is pain: Are cognitive and social features core components?Paediatric & neonatal pain · 2021Review
- A model of negative emotional contagion between male-female rat dyads: Effects of voluntary exercise on stress-induced behavior and BDNF-TrkB signaling.Physiology & behavior · 2021Article
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Authors and funding
13 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Pain can be socially transferred between familiar rats due to empathic responses. To validate rat model of empathy for pain, effects of pain expressions in a cagemate demonstrator (CD) in pain on empathic pain responses in a naïve cagemate observer (CO) after 30 min priming dyadic social interactions (PDSI) were evaluated. The CD rats were prepared with four pain models: bee venom (BV), formalin, complete Freund's adjuvant (CFA), and spared nerve injury (SNI). Both BV and formalin tests are characterized by displayable and eye-identifiable spontaneous pain-related behaviors (SPRB) immediately after treatment, while CFA and SNI models are characterized by delayed occurrence of evoked pain hypersensitivity but with less eye-identifiable SPRB. After 30 min PDSI with a CD immediately after BV and formalin, respectively, the empathic mechanical pain hypersensitivity (EMPH) could be identified at both hind paws in CO rats. The BV-or formalin-induced EMPH in CO rats lasted for 4-5 h until full recovery. However, EMPH failed to develop in CO after socially interacting with a CD immediately after CFA, or 2 h after BV when SPRB completely disappeared. The CO's EMPH was partially relieved when socially interacting with an analgecized CD whose SPRB had been significantly suppressed. Moreover, repeated exposures to a CD in pain could enhance EMPH in CO. Finally, social transfer of pain hypersensitivity was also identified in CO who was being co-housed in pairs with a conspecific treated with CFA or SNI. The results suggest that development of EMPH in CO rats would be determined not only by extent of familiarity but also by visually identifiable pain expressions in the social partners during short period of PDSI. However, the visually unidentifiable pain can also be transferred to naïve cagemate when being co-housed in pairs with a distressed conspecific. In summary, the vicariously social contagion of pain between familiar rats is dependent upon not only expressions of pain in social partners but also the time that dyads spent in social communications. The rat model of empathy for pain is a highly stable, reproducible and valid model for studying the neural mechanisms of empathy in lower animals.
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