Mice Share Each Other’s Pain and Fear

The animals adopt the emotional state of their cagemates, and the parts of the brain engaged during the process are different for pain and fear, according to a new study.

Written byAmanda Heidt

| 5 min read

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neuroscience, mice, fear, pain, empathy, social transmission, emotion contagion, optogenetics, analgesia, Stanford University

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ABOVE: These mice were part of an experiment demonstrating that distinct neurological circuits control the empathetic responses of mice to a cagemate experiencing fear, pain, and pain relief.
MONIQUE SMITH AND BORIS HEIFETS

The ability to empathize with others stems from a long evolutionary history that includes empathy-like behaviors in animals beyond humans. Whales and primates grieve alongside members of their social groups, for example, while rodents are able to recognize and respond to the fear and pain of their neighbors.

A study published January 8 in Science has found that the brain circuits engaged during empathetic behaviors in mice differ depending on the emotion they are experiencing. The social transmission of pain, for example, is mediated by a pathway involving the brain’s anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and the nucleus accumbens (NAc), while empathy-based fear is dictated by projections leading from the ACC to a region called the basolateral amygdala (BLA). ...

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Meet the Author

Amanda Heidt
Amanda first began dabbling in scicom as a master’s student studying marine science at Moss Landing Marine Labs, where she edited the student blog and interned at a local NPR station. She enjoyed that process of demystifying science so much that after receiving her degree in 2019, she went straight into a second master’s program in science communication at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Formerly an intern at The Scientist, Amanda joined the team as a staff reporter and editor in 2021 and oversaw the publication’s internship program, assigned and edited the Foundations, Scientist to Watch, and Short Lit columns, and contributed original reporting across the publication. Amanda’s stories often focus on issues of equity and representation in academia, and she brings this same commitment to DEI to the Science Writers Association of the Rocky Mountains and to the board of the National Association of Science Writers, which she has served on since 2022. She is currently based in the outdoor playground that is Moab, Utah. Read more of her work at www.amandaheidt.com.
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