ArticleBMC research notes2018
Novel unconditioned prosocial behavior in prairie voles (Microtus ochrogaster) as a model for empathy.
Article in BMC research notes, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed, 13 citations in OpenAlex.
- Unraveling sex differences in maternal and paternal care impacts on social behaviors and neurobiological responses to early-life adversity.Frontiers in neuroendocrinology · 2025Review
- Identification of hippocampal area CA2 in hamster and vole brain.The Journal of comparative neurology · 2024Article
- Identification of hippocampal area CA2 in hamster and vole brain.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- Article
- Helping behavior in prairie voles: A model of empathy and the importance of oxytocin.iScience · 2022Article
- Pro-social preference in an automated operant two-choice reward task under different housing conditions: Exploratory studies on pro-social decision making.Developmental cognitive neuroscience · 2020Article
- Are There Multiple Motivators for Helping Behavior in Rats?Frontiers in psychology · 2020Article
- Sex-specific effects of perinatal FireMaster® 550 (FM 550) exposure on socioemotional behavior in prairie voles.Neurotoxicology and teratologyArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveIn this study, empathy is quantified using a novel social test. Empathy and prosocial behavior are linked to the expression of oxytocin in humans and rodent models. Specifically, prosocial behavior in prairie voles (Microtus ochrogaster) has been linked to the expression of oxytocin in the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus. The animal's behavior was considered empathic if it spends significantly more time attempting to remove a loos fitting restraint (tether) from the stimulus animal than time in contact with a, simultaneously presented, non-social object similar to the tether. The behavioral data was cross-referenced with the number of neurons expressing oxytocin and arginine vasopressin, as well as the density of dopaminergic neurons (identified by the expression of tyrosine hydroxylase), in the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus. These proteins influence empathic behavior in humans, non-human primates, rats, mice, and prairie voles.
resultsThe consistency between neuroanatomical mechanisms linked to empathy, and the durations of time spent engaging in empathic contact, support the prediction that the empathic contact in this test is a distinct prosocial behavior, lacking prior behavioral training or the naturally occurring ethological relevance of other prosocial behaviors, and is a measure of empathy.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.